Tug of War
by LanieSullivan
Summary: Amanda has a secret that is about to bring the mystery marriage to an end just as a secret kept by Lee's old flame and Francine's best friend threatens their future, leaving Francine caught in the middle and Lee torn between his past and his present. .
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The characters in this story are copyrighted by Warner Brothers and Shoot The Moon Productions. It is meant for enjoyment purposes only. We retain the right to the plot, not the characters.

Author's Note: This is a very old tale that Kim Williamson and I started over fifteen years ago and one that was sadly, never completed as she and I lost touch. It was never published on this site, only on my own site. It has been left unattended for a long time because I never felt comfortable completing it without the co-author that I started it with, but since she and I had the entire thing mapped out including the ending, I thought it was long past time to write that ending. I am posting it here, but also wanted to give Kim credit as the idea was a joint effort. I've done a little editing, adding a few little bits here and there, and changed the child's name, but other than that, the idea is still the same. It is still not yet complete, but will be soon as I still have the outline Kim and I put together back in 1999. I hope you all enjoy it. To Kim, if you're still out there and want to continue this with me, message me, and you can jump on in.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Amanda picked up the phone hesitantly and then put it back down again. Making this phone call was about the last thing she wanted to do but she needed someone to talk to and as bewildering as it seemed to her, Francine was the logical choice. Next to Billy and herself, Francine knew Lee better than anyone. That thought alone annoyed Amanda this morning. Francine wasn't the most understanding person in the world, but she could be objective and what Amanda needed right now was on objective opinion.

"You know you have to do it, Amanda," she said trying to give herself a pep talk, "Just do it and get it over with."

"Do what?" Lee queried as he entered the living room of his apartment straightening his tie. Amanda thinking that he was still in the shower and lost in her thoughts, jumped at the sound of his voice. Feeling like a child who had just gotten caught with their hand in the candy jar, she attempted to answer his question without giving too much away. "I was just about to call Francine."

"Francine? What for?" An early morning call to Francine had piqued Lee's curiosity.

"Well, "she hedged as she started to fiddle with his tie. "I just thought ...You know all the silly things that have gone on between Francine and myself...Well, I thought maybe we could go to lunch. Maybe have a nice woman-to-woman talk and...well...maybe just put all of this behind us since it's her day off and we really don't have a lot of time to do that." She hated not telling him the whole truth, but she knew that under the circumstances, he would not be the objective voice that she needed. He was a react-first-think-later kind of person which was the last thing she needed right now.

"Oh, I see. Let bygones be bygones, huh? Nice try but I can see right through you,"he said triumphantly as he kissed her lightly.

"Oh? And just what is it you think you see?" Amanda inquired a little worriedly. Had he already heard the news from Doctor Kelford? God, she hoped not. When she'd had her last physical, Kelford had sworn he'd keep her test results to himself until she'd had time to break the new to Lee and that he would give her the opportunity to tell Billy herself as well.

"Well I do have a birthday coming up next week". O_ops, _Amanda thought. With all that had been going on Lee's birthday had totally slipped her mind. "I bet you're planning another one of those big office parties which I hate and that Francine is helping you " Lee continued.

Amanda had to smile. He had no idea just how big his birthday surprise was going to be. "You caught me," she teased as he took her into his arms.

"Ok, I promise to act surprised if you promise me two small things in return."

"Hmm... why do I feel like I'm getting ready to sell my soul to the devil? Go ahead.."

"First, don't invite Bert from internal affairs. Last year after one drink he was going around challenging everyone to gunfights at the OK Corral."

"I think they need to look a little more closely at that man's background check" Amanda jokingly observed, "Okay. It won't be the same but no Bert this year. Now what is condition two?"

He pulled he closer "You promise me we skip out early so we can spend the rest of the evening doing what _I _want for my birthday" She smiled thinking of the activity she knew he had in mind.

"And what would that be Mr. Stetson?"

"Well, Mrs. Stetson, I'm sure if we put our heads together we can think of something that we'll both enjoy," Lee relied with a mischievous grin as he pulled her close to him.

She saw the anticipation in his eyes and smiled."I'm sure we can. Okay, you've got a deal."

"Good. Let's seal it with a kiss then." They shared a lingering kiss. Lee pulled back from their kiss, gazed at her adoringly, taking in the fact that she was still wearing her robe, and said, "You should get dressed for the day, not that I mind your current attire," He softly nuzzled her neck, then added, "But I don't think it would go over too well at the office. You know how the grapevine is and they would definitely say something if you showed up like that."

"Yeah, you're right," Amanda said as she planted a quick kiss to his lips, slipped out of his embrace and made a beeline for the bedroom, grateful that he'd given her just the excuse she needed to make her phone call without him overhearing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Francine Desmond was jolted out of a sound sleep by the ringing of the telephone. She looked at the clock on her nightstand and groaned. 'Who could be calling me at 7A.M. on my day off.' She picked up the phone. 

"Hello?" She mumbled in a sleepy voice.

"Francine?" Amanda King said. "Did I wake you?"

"That's okay. I had to get up to answer the phone anyway." She said dryly as she yawned and stretched.

"I know it's early and I'm sorry, but I have to talk to somebody."

"Look Amanda, can't this wait until Wednesday when I come back into work, Jonathan and I had made plans to-"

Amanda interrupted "Francine I wouldn't ask you if this weren't really important" There was an urgency in her voice that concerned Francine.

"Amanda, are you alright?"

"I really don't want to get into this over the phone. Can you meet me for lunch?"

"Sure. What time?"

"About one O'clock at Emelio's. I'd really appreciate it, Francine."

"Just remember this the next time I need a favor. I'll see you at one" She replaced the receiver on the phone puzzled at the conversation that just took place. "What could Amanda need to talk to me about?" As she reviewed the few facts she had, an arm reached over her waist to pick up the alarm clock from the nightstand.

"Who was that , and don't they know this is our day off?" Jonathan Stone asked in annoyance as he looked at the time on the clock.

"That was Amanda. She wants to meet me for lunch about some kind of problem she's having."

"She's asking you for advice. That's strange. I wonder what that's all about. The two of you aren't exactly bosom buddies." The absurdity of it was starting to pique everyone's curiosity.

"Well, I'll find out this afternoon." Francine decided to put it out of her mind for the time being. _Knowing Amanda it probably had something to do with the junior cliffwalkers or some other such nonsense._ she thought. "For now, I just want to enjoy as much of my day off as possible." She said as she turned her attention back to the man lying beside her.

"I'm with you." He kissed her and pulled her close.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Candice Davenport was sitting in a little cafe. She twirled her long blonde hair around her fingers nervously, her bright blue eyes anxious with worry. Her four-year -old daughter, Leah, sat next to her. She was getting antsy and finding ways that only a four-year-old can to wiggle. She didn't like sitting still. 

"Mommy, when are we going to see my daddy?" she asked in her hazel eyes dancing in anticipation. She was bouncing up and down in her seat, her blonde curls bouncing along with her.

"Soon, Honey. Soon." Her mother replied. She loved to see the excitement in her daughter's eyes. Those eyes reminded her of Lee whom she hadn't seen in almost five years. Leah definitely had her father's eyes.

"Why haven't I ever seen him before? Doesn't he like me?" She asked, a little worried.

"He's never seen you, Sweetie," Her mother replied.

"But why hasn't he ever seen me?"

"Because, Leah, we were hiding from the bad people that were trying to take you away from me, remember?" She reminded her.

"Yeah. I 'member, but why didn't Daddy hide with us?"

"Because Daddy didn't know what was going on. He thought I was dead and you weren't born yet when the bad men started chasing me, so he doesn't know that he's your daddy yet."

"Why?"

"Because, I didn't know you were on the way until it was too late."

Leah thought about that for a minute and hung her head a little."What if he doesn't like me when he sees me?"

Candice pulled her small daughter into her lap "Sweetheart, your daddy will love everything about you. He'll love your pretty pink hair ribbons , the way you scrunch your cute little turned-up nose when I try to get you to eat peas, the way your eyes sparkle when you see a puppy, and especially the way you laugh so hard when someone tickles you right here," she said as she started tickling her daughter.

"Mommy, stop that" Leah pleaded amidst her giggling. When Candice finally relented her daughter's tone turned serious. "Are we going to be a real family? With a mommy and a daddy and maybe...a puppy?" She asked expectantly.

"A puppy?"Candice replied grateful that the girl's request had been for a pet and not a sibling.

"Well, you brung it up."

"_Brought_ it up, Honey," She corrected her daughter. "As for a puppy, I'll let you discuss that with your father, although he's always loved animals so I don't really think he'll mind"

"Good." She said with a decisive nod, trying to be grown-up. "Mommy?"

"Yes, Leah?"

"Can I see the picture of my daddy again?"

"Of course." She took a worn snapshot out of her purse and handed it to Leah. The little girl smiled as she examined it lovingly. The man her mother had told her was her father stood in between two woman. Leah pointed to her mother. "That's you, right?"

"Yes. Do you remember me telling you who that other lady is?"

"She's my auntie Francine. She's the one I got my middle name from and she's your best friend...besides me, of course."

"Of course. We have to go see your auntie Francine before we see you daddy too."

"Why?"

Candice sighed at the eternal "why" of a four-year-old child. "Because I'm not sure where he's at. Your daddy doesn't live in the same place he used to and Auntie Francine can probably tell us where to find him."

"Do you think she has a little girl that can be my best friend?" Leah inquired.

"Hey now, I thought I was your best friend" Candice teased.

"No, I mean a best friend like Auntie Francine is your best friend"

"I'm not really sure. She might. She was supposed to marry a very nice man named Jonathan. They may have children by now. I guess we'll see when we get there."

"I'm so excited! I get a daddy and an aunt and maybe a real best friend for the first time ever. Boy, this is going to be a great day."

"I sure hope so," Candice said under her breath. She wasn't entirely sure. Nearly five years had passed since the last time she'd seen Lee and had no idea what his life was like now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Isn't this quaint?" Francine observed in usual Francine fashion. Nothing that Amanda was associated with ever seemed to meet up to Francine's standards. For a minute Amanda regretted calling her. This was a mistake. _Why on earth did I think Francine could help me?_ she thought. 

"So, Amanda, what is it that is so urgent that it couldn't wait until Wednesday? I hope it's not something to do with those Junior cliffhangers."

"Junior Trailblazers," Amanda corrected.

"Because you know I'm just not very good with kids or domestic activities, but if you really need a hand I suppose I could learn...I mean how hard could it be, if you can do it," Francine continued.

Amanda, too exhausted to listen to Francine's belittlement of her life interrupted, "Francine, You've known Lee a long time."

"Next to Billy, I've known him longer than anyone else at the agency," said Francine smugly. Her expression changed to one of sincere concern "Is this about Lee? Well, Amanda, I hate to say 'I told you so' but I did warn you that Lee was the love them and leave them type. He'll never change. When I think of all the women he's tossed off to the side over the years...It just boggles the mind."

Amanda's anger was building with every word in Francine's tirade." Francine, it's not that."

"Oh, now, you can tell me. After all, you're in good company. Look at all the fabulous women Lee has left in the dust." Francine replied, pleased with herself that she had figured out the puzzle. "Honestly, Amanda, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner" She patted Amanda's hand sympathetically.

Amanda jerked her hand away and stood glaring down at her snarky co-worker."Francine, listen very carefully, Lee is not tossing me off to the side, leaving me in the dust or anything even remotely similar to that," Amanda uncharacteristically started to raise her voice "In fact, when I called you this morning, I was at his apartment, in his bedroom to be more specific." Francine raised her eyebrows in surprise at this. "Yes, Francine, I spent the night, as I have spent many nights there in the past year." Francine gave her a look of disbelief. "The reason I invited you here...which I am now beginning to regret, by the way... I wonder what in the world I was thinking. I must have been suffering from temporary insanity to think that you'd be remotely understanding. What I wanted to do is to tell you that I am pregnant with Lee's baby and that we have been married for four months and to get your opinion on how he'll take the news and how you think the agency will handle it, not only the news about the baby, but the news that we're married. The last thing that I would want is for the agency to use that as an excuse to split us up and since you've been Billy's assistant for a long time and you've known Lee for a long time, I though you, of all people, would know those things better than anyone." Finishing what she had to say Amanda suddenly realized as she watched Francine's jaw drop that she had just dumped the whole story right in her lap and not in the way that she had planned.. Oh well, she couldn't worry about that now because the room was starting to spin and get very dark.

"Amanda , Amanda are you ok." Francine jumped up just in time to keep Amanda from hitting the floor. 


	2. Chapter 2

Amanda opened her eyes and saw both Francine and Norman , the bartender at Emelio's, staring down at her with concerned looks on their faces.

"Amanda, should we call a doctor?" Francine asked not being quite sure what they ought to do next.

"No, I'll be fine in just a minute. Where are we?"

"You're in the restaurant's office, Mrs. King. Would you like for me to call Mr. Stetson?" Norman innocently offered.

"NO," both women at once jumped in.

"Alright then, I'll just go back out to the restaurant and check on my other customers. Mrs. King, you feel free to use the office for as long as you need to. Is there anything I can get you in the meantime?"

"Some kind of juice would be great," she admitted.

"I'll be back with it in just a few minutes." and with that Norman left Francine and Amanda alone. The recent revelations had Francine reeling.

"Are you all right?" Amanda asked her.

"Me?! Am I all right? I'm not the one who just passed out in front of half of Washington!"

"Oh now, Francine, there was hardly anyone in the restaurant, and better here than at the agency. Besides, I'll be okay. I just got a little light-headed. It's a normal part of pregnancy. It usually only lasts for the first couple of months"

"I can see Dr. Smyth now, briefing us and then you pass out in the middle of the meeting."

"You know it probably wouldn't even break his chain of thought." Amanda commented after thinking over the situation the thought of Dr. Smyth trying to carry on with his meeting while everyone else was attending to Amanda made both of the women laugh.

"You know, Amanda, this really isn't funny. That could really happen. Why on earth did you come to me with this?" Francine moaned. She felt overwhelmed. No one ever asked her advice on anything, let alone something of this magnitude.

"Insanity, "Amanda joked reflecting back on her rant to Francine. "Listen, Francine before me, you and Billy were the closest thing to family that Lee had. Then I came along and even though you and I have had our rocky moments, I was taken into that circle that you have" She paused for a moment. "We might not always agree on things and sometimes we don't even like each other very much, but I know when the chips are down and I really need you...You'll be there ...and I hope that you know that I'd do the same for you."

"I never really spent much time thinking about it but you're right. I guess we have become friends or something like it. Just don't expect me to come to any Lovely Lady parties" she paused and grinned, "Still, why come to me? Why not some other friend?"

"Well, I needed an opinion about Lee, and I needed to know about the Agency, and I needed to talk to a woman and my mother ...explaining all of this to her without Lee would be more than I can deal with right now."Amanda explained. She could just see her mother's reaction. "That's part of the reason that I came to you, the other part is that since I started this job, I've kind of lost touch with my old friends. I don't really have what you'd call close girlfriends anymore, not that any of them would understand, even if I did."

"When are you planning to tell Lee? You know the first time you pass out around him, he's going to be carting you straight off to Doc. McJohn"

Amanda nodded in agreement. "I haven't decided yet. It's not something we ever talked about when we got married."

"Amanda King, you're scared to tell him," Francine said in surprise unable to believe that a woman who could be so brave in front of flying bullets could be so chicken when it came to telling the man she loved that he was going to be a father.

"I'm not."

"You are"

"I'm just not sure how he's going to handle it."

"Look, like you said, I've known Lee a long time. To me, he was never the type to settle down, the last thing I ever thought he would do would be marry anyone, let alone someone like you...no offense."

"None taken. I didn't think so either."

"But ever since you came into his life, he's changed... As much as I hate to admit it, it's for the better. He's more at peace with himself. Like he's finally found what he's been looking for his whole life. With losing his parents when he was so young and then being shuffled around by the colonel, I think he's been looking for somewhere to belong his whole life. Until you, the agency was that place. Now, if push came to shove, he'd leave The Agency to be with you. You two fit." Amanda nodded and smiled at that. "Billy recognized it the first time you walked through the door. The rest of us are still trying to figure it out, " she grinned.

Amanda smiled, but then the concerns plaguing her mind wouldn't let her smile for too long. "But what about a baby?" Amanda was worried about how he'd take the news. While he'd been great with the boys, a baby was something else entirely and they'd never talked about having a child together.

"Let's see a namesake to carry on the Stetson name, Lee would love that," She paused. "His own immortality, that would be so Lee."

"But it could be a girl."

"Even better, then her Auntie Francine can teach her all the really important things in life...which chocolates are the best...how to judge the cut of a diamond...how much is too much to pay for a designer original and the most important lesson of all, that a woman can never have too many shoes." They both laughed.

"Although, you certainly couldn't teach her how to cook," Amanda said with a chuckle unable to resist getting in just a little jab at Francine after her assumption earlier that Lee had dumped her.

"That one, I'll leave up to her mother," Francine said with a laugh. "You're the queen of domesticity, after all."

"Thank you, Francine," Amanda said sincerely her voice taking on a more serious tone.

"Hey don't mention it. That's what friends are for" she paused to think about it for a second then added "But don't let word of our friendship leak out. It could ruin both our reputations." Both women laughed. Norman came back in the room with Amanda's juice and handed it to her.

"Thanks, Norman." She said as she took the glass and sipped at the juice.

"Is everything ok in here?" He asked in concern.

"Fine. I'm feeling much better. I just got a little light-headed. That's all."

"Ok, if you need anything, I'll be right outside."

"Thank you for everything, Norman."

"Hey you have to take care of your best customers." he winked at her " You get to a doctor I'd hate to have to let the cat out of the bag to Mr. Stetson that you passed out here." With that, he left the two ladies alone again with their secret.

"There's something I'm wondering about," Francine said in puzzlement.

"What's that?" Amanda asked.

"With everything that was going on at the agency four months ago, when did you have time to sneak off and get married?"

"It wasn't easy. In fact, we were late for our own wedding." Francine laughed at that. "It's true. We had just caught Felicia McMasters and took off as fast as we could."

"I remember that!. The whole Nick Grant thing! I always wondered why you went screeching out of there in that limo like a bat out of hell."

"Yeah. The horrible thing about it was that after all of that, our honeymoon was very rudely cut short." Francine thought for a minute and then remembered suddenly.

"That's when you were shot out in California!"

"Yes, it was."

"But Lee told us your mother called him and told him about you being in the hospital."

"He lied to you, Francine. He was the one who went with me to California, not Mother. He called her to tell her the news, not the other way around."

"My my, you two are quite the sneaky pair." Francine leaned back in her chair pondering everything she'd heard. "This is so incredible. You and Lee, married...And having a baby. You know if it weren't 'The Happy Homemaker' telling me all this I wouldn't believe it for a second. It all has that twilight zone aura around it. Spy meets housewife at the train station, spy gives her package, housewife bungles the job, housewife becomes a spy, housewife marries spy and they proceed to have little spies..."

"It does sound like something that could only happen in the movies, doesn't it? Right now, I'm still struggling with the baby part myself. I never thought of having another baby. I mean, my baby is going to be twelve in November. He's half-grown."

"Well, he's not going to be the baby anymore."

"I don't know how I'm going to tell them," Amanda said worriedly, the thought of how her boys were going to react crossing her mind for the first time since discovering that she was pregnant.

"I can't help you with that one. I know as much about kids as I do about cooking." Both women laughed. Francine became serious for a moment. "But I think you ought to worry about how you're going to tell Lee first. Do you have any idea how or when you're going to drop the bomb? Oh, how I'd love to be there. The expression on his face will be priceless."

"Well, he's coming to my house tonight. I think he's going to play monopoly with the boys or something."

Francine raised her eyebrows in surprise."Really?"

"Yes, he and the boys have become quite close. They look up to him. Anyway, This'll be the last time we'll have to spend with the boys for a while."

"Why?" Francine wondered.

"Joe's going to have the boys for two weeks since they're on their summer vacation."

"Oh, I see."

"Tonight's definitely out. Mother and the boys will be there and I want to tell him in private, but don't worry, I'll think of something."

"If I can help in any way, let me know."

"You've already helped me a lot today. I think we'd better get out of here now and let Norman have his office back."

"Good idea," Francine said as they left the room, Francine occasionally glancing back at Amanda worriedly. _How did I get involved in all this,_ she thought forlornly knowing that she wouldn't be able to keep this secret for long. When she returned to work, Lee would instantly know she was hiding something. She wondered how he hadn't sensed the same in Amanda if they'd been together at his apartment this morning. She decided that she had to ask, "So, Amanda," she began as they reached their table and both sat down.

"Yes?" Amanda replied.

"So, how exactly have you been able to keep this from Lee up 'til now? I mean, if you called me from his place, he had to know you were up to something."

"He thinks we're planning a surprise birthday party for him," Amanda answered.

"Oh, right, his birthday is coming up, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is, so when he asked me if that was what I was up to, I kind of...just let him believe that."

"I don't quite get it, Amanda," Francine said still bewildered by the situation. "If the two of you were alone together all night, why didn't you just tell him then?"

"Well, we haven't had a lot of alone time together lately and the boys were at a sleepover with their friends last night so he had this whole romantic evening set up, a home-cooked meal, candlelight, soft music, the works..."

"Well, it seems to me that would have been the perfect opportunity to tell him. The mood was all set."

"That's exactly the problem," Amanda answered. "I didn't want to kill the mood when he went to so much effort to set it up." She then blushed slightly as she recalled the events of the night before.

"Amanda!"Francine said in mock horror. "I know exactly why you didn't tell him last night! You wanted to get a little action first."

"What?"Amanda said startled. "No." She blushed a deeper shade of red.

"Yes, that's exactly what happened. You said it yourself, you didn't want to kill the mood. Admit it; you wanted to get laid first."

"Francine, honestly, do you have to be so crude about it?"

"Why won't you admit that that's the real reason you chickened out?" Francine teased. She'd learned about Amanda over the years that when she didn't want to answer a question, she'd just answer it with another question. Unlike Lee, Francine could play that game all day without it getting to her.

"Why do you even care?"Amanda fired back.

"Why won't you answer my question?"

Amanda sighed knowing she couldn't manipulate Francine with endless questions the way she did with Lee and said, "Okay, I admit it. I wanted to spend a nice, quiet, romantic evening with my husband for a change. We don't get a lot of private time together, okay?"

"Well, if you're carrying his child, you must have had _some_ privacy," Francine quipped. "I mean, I get the sense that you're a behind-closed-doors kind of woman when it comes to that."

"You might be surprised, Francine," Amanda countered.

"Oh?"Francine said with an arched eyebrow. "So, is that how you managed to snare the un-snare-able bachelor?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"Amanda said with an evasive smile.

"Interesting," Francine said with a smile. "Well, you must be doing something right if you got him to say, "I do." Both women laughed again before Francine turned serious again. "Seriously, Amanda, you should tell him as soon as possible. You know me; I may be great at keeping secrets on the job, but when it comes to the personal stuff, not so much, especially when it comes to Lee. He can always see right through me, just like he can see right through you. The longer you keep this from him, the closer he's going to get to realizing that this secret of yours had nothing to do with his birthday." She paused for a moment, and then said, "Hey, now, there's a thought. You could always tell him on his birthday. Wouldn't that be a hell of a birthday present?"

"It definitely would," Amanda agreed though she couldn't figure out if it would be a birthday surprise he'd be happy about or one that would ruin his birthday.


	3. Chapter 3

After what had seemed like the longest day of her life Francine was immensely enjoying some down time with her fiancé. As they sat on the couch enjoying a bottle of wine, Francine recounted the day's events to Jonathan. 

"I just can't believe it! Not only is Lee married, he's going to be a father. It's like I'm in some kind of alternate universe or something."

Jonathan laughed at Francine's comment as he massaged her shoulders."Well, I'm actually glad to hear he's settled down."

"Why would you care about Lee?"

"I never told you this, but when I first came back to town, I was insanely jealous of him."

"Oh, you were not." she said as she turned to face him.

"Yes, I was. The way he was trying to protect you, I thought there was something between you two. Then I met Amanda and saw the sparks between them and that made me feel a little better. Then you had to go and tell me you and Lee had a fling while you and I were apart and that made it worse."

"Would you rather I kept it from you? I told you about Lee and me because I thought we were trying to make a new start and I wanted everything out in the open. We shouldn't have any secrets from each other. I mean, God knows that I have to keep enough secrets on the job." _Now, I'm keeping one more, _she added to herself.

"You're right. I'm just glad to find out he's married, that's all."

"You never had anything to worry about from Lee Stetson. I didn't realize it until you came back, but I never stopped loving you." She kissed him softly.

He slipped his arms around her."I'm glad to hear that," He said as he kissed her passionately."Why don't we continue this in the bedroom?" he whispered in her ear with their kiss broke.

"I'm with you," she said. As she got up and grabbed her glass of wine, there was a knock on the door. "That better not be Amanda," she grumbled as she went to the door. "Amanda, you're really stretching the bonds of friendship here." She opened the door to find Candice there with a sleeping Leah in her arms.

"Who's Amanda?" Candice asked with curiosity.

"Candice?"A stunned Francine managed to get out as her wine glass dropped to the floor.

"Now, now, is that any way to greet an old friend?"

"I'll be damned! This day just refuses to die. How...why...what..." she sputtered.

"Francine, can I please come in? She's starting to get heavy," Candice said, indicating the child in her arms.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Come on in." Francine said beginning to recover from her shock but still eyeing the woman warily.

"You might want to get something to clean up that wine," Candice suggested as she lay Leah on the couch "You're lucky it was white and not red. On second thought, I'll get it seeing that it was my fault. Towels in the same place?" Francine still being in shock, just nodded.

"Sweetheart, I think I should go home and let you two talk. If you need me, call. We'll pick up where we left off tomorrow," Jonathan offered.

"Where are you going? Don't married people usually live together," Candice asked in confusion as she returned from the kitchen and started mopping up the spill by the door.

"It's a long story, not nearly as long as the one you've obviously got to tell, but no, we didn't get married," Jonathan offered.

"Well, you still don't have to leave on my account."

Francine finally started to focus on the situation at hand. "You know you're probably right, Jonathan. After all, it's not every day your best friend comes back from the dead. This is probably a conversation that Candice and I should have in private." she responded, "I'll call you later." She kissed him quickly.

"Well I guess I'll be seeing you around," Candice called after Jonathan as he headed for the door. The door shut and Candice turned to Francine. "Well, don't I get a hug or a handshake or at least a glad to see you?"

"What happened to you? You let us all believe you were dead for almost five years and then you just show up on my doorstep and expect everything to be hunky dory. I don't think so, Candice."

"I almost was dead, Francine."

"No, you _were _dead. Lee and I saw you get captured. Then they shoved you in that truck right before it blew up. Forensics ID'd one of the bodies or rather body pieces as yours."

"That's what they wanted you to believe, we were dealing with powerful people, Francine. People that can make anything happen."

"Ok-ay. So, Candice, how did you escape?"

"That's not important. I don't really want to talk about it. I want to talk to you about Lee. How is he?"

Francine frustrated with the whole conversation and her mind reeling with questions, flopped down in a chair. "He's fine. Who is this?" She asked, gesturing toward the child sleeping on her couch.

"This..." she said with a warm smile, "...is Leah Francine Davenport.. She's my little girl." She paused. "And Lee's." Francine threw her head back and laughed sardonically at the irony of the situation.

"Of course, she is. Oh, this is just perfect."

"What's wrong? Why are you laughing? I thought you'd be happy to see me. We used to be best friends."

"I am happy to see you. I've just had one hell of a lot to digest today, that's all. Did you really expect that I wouldn't be angry with you? You know I hate to be kept out of the loop. On a need to know basis..."

"I know you needed to know" Candice finished the statement for her "Francine, don't you think that if there were any way for me to have contacted you safely, I would have? You were my partner and my best friend. I've missed you more than you could ever know."

"So, tell me about your escape."

"No. I don't want to talk about the past. I want to focus on the future."

"I don't accept that, "Francine said unwilling to be deterred. As happy as she was to know that her old friend was still alive, she needed answers. "We all thought you were dead. You certainly should have told Lee he was a father."

"I didn't know I was pregnant until after I was taken prisoner. When I did, as I have told you before, there was no way to contact you or him safely. It was a miracle that I was able to escape at all. Even after that, I still wasn't safe because I knew too much about their operation. They threatened to kill my daughter, so I went into hiding. I thought if I just stayed away from everyone, that Leah and I would be safe."

"So, what prompted you to come back now?"

"I found out that Victor Carrerra was finally indicted and that his organization was shut down, so I thought it was finally safe to come home."

"Things are a lot different than they were when you disappeared. Things have changed." _Especially things with Lee_, she thought. "So, why did you come to me first? Why not go to Lee now and tell him about Leah?" What was it with stubborn women around her not telling Lee that he's a father?

"Because I don't know where he is. I went to his old apartment, but they said he moved out three years ago and didn't leave a forwarding address." Francine nodded her head in understanding.

"Oh, that's right. Lee's had two apartments since then."

"So, where is he now?"

"Well, I can tell you where his new place is, but you won't find him there tonight."

"That's ok. Just tell me where I can find him. I can't wait to see him. There are so many things I want to talk to him about."

"Candice..."Francine said, caution in her in voice at hearing the wistful tone in her friend's.

"...I've missed him so much," Candice continued paying Francine no heed.. "All I've thought of the last four and a half years is coming back to him and picking up where we left off."

"Candice!" Francine said more sternly.

"...All I've wanted is for the three of us to be a real family."She said dreamily.

"CANDICE!" Francine shouted, snapping Candice out of her daydream.

"What?"

"Before I tell you where Lee is, there's something you should know."

"What?"

"Lee's...well...um...he's...um...involved, so to speak."

"I wouldn't worry about that, Francine. Once he sees me again, I'm sure that will change. And when I tell him about Leah, he won't have another thought about that other woman."

"No, you're wrong, Candice. He's serious about her."_Very serious_, she added mentally. Francine shook her head unable to believe that it had only been a few hours ago that she'd been teasing Amanda about Lee tossing her off to the side only to be rocked to her core to find out that not only was Lee not dumping the housewife, but also had married her and that the two of them were expecting.

"You know how Lee is. He doesn't get serious about women. He told me I was the only woman he was serious about."

"That was almost five years ago. He's...changed since then." Besides that, she'd known even then that Lee wasn't as serious about his relationship with Candice as her moony-eyed friend had been. _ Should I tell her that he's married?_ Francine asked herself. _She has a right to know that this little fantasy of hers can't possibly come true. What about Amanda? Lee doesn't even know she's pregnant yet. This is going to hurt her terribly._

"He can't have changed that much."

"You'd be surprised at how much a person can change in five years. This woman is his partner."

"Lee doesn't work with a partner," Candice scoffed. "Remember, I used to tease him about it, that if he wouldn't have a partner at work, he should at least have one at home?"

"I told you he's changed. I believe he really loves Amanda. She's his partner in every sense there is."

"Amanda? Is that her name? Wait, that's the name you said when I came to the door...seems she might have taken my place in more than one way. Is she your new best friend too?"

"Not exactly," Francine said in hesitation. "We are friends in our own way, but no one could ever take your place. Besides, Amanda's not one to fill anyone else's shoes. She definitely wears her own."

"Well, he may care about her, but I had something special with him."

"Yeah? And how many other women do you think said the same thing about Lee Stetson?"

"I have an edge none of those women had. I'm the mother of his child and nothing can change that. Just wait and see, we _will_ be a family, Lee, our daughter, and me like we should have been to begin with. That thought is what's kept me going all these years. Hope for the future is all that I've had to hang on to."

"We'll see." Francine was beyond the point of arguing with her. A thousand thoughts ran through her mind. _How would Lee react to finding out that his wife was pregnant and that his ex-girlfriend who he thought was dead is not only alive but is the mother of his child? After their lunch, Amanda had begun to get very excited about the idea of making Lee a father. How was she going to react to find out that she's not going to be the first woman to give Lee a child? How would her children react to find out that not only do they have a stepfather they didn't know about, but also a stepsister and another brother or sister on the way? How was Candice going to react when she found out that Lee is married and has a family of his own? That will burst her bubble. And little Leah... _She smiled at the thought that this pretty little girl was named after both her and Lee._ This was probably going to be hardest on her. She's so young and she's going to meet a father she's never known, plus a stepmother and two stepbrothers and is going have to deal with a baby too. She couldn't possibly understand it all. And where do I fit into this puzzle? Lee and Amanda are my friends, but so is Candice. Candice used to be my best friend. I'm stuck in the middle. How am I going to deal with this?_


	4. Chapter 4

Lee , Phillip, Jamie" Amanda called for the three men in her life. "Dinner is almost ready." 

"Okay, Mom. We'll be there in a minute," Phillip answered as he and his brother began cleaning up the mess on the coffee table left by their Monopoly game.

As soon as Amanda stepped in to the kitchen, Dotty said, "It just amazes me how wonderful Lee is with the boys. How many boys can say that they have two wonderful men in their lives as role models? Honestly, Amanda I don't know what you two are waiting for ...it's time you made it official." Amanda's mother never missed an opportunity to tell her that she and Lee were taking far too long in the courting stage of their relationship.

"You know Mother, if I didn't know better, I'd think that you want to marry Lee," she teased trying to get out of giving her mother a straight answer.

"That's very funny, Amanda, Darling," Dotty stated as she set the table with the dinner dishes and Amanda tossed the salad. "All I'm saying is sometimes you can just wait too long to make a decision about something and then the moment is gone forever."

"That's what I keep telling her, Dotty," Lee interrupted as he snuck up behind Amanda just in time to receive an elbow to the ribs. He gave her a quick kiss.

"You two are impossible," Amanda said.

"That's why you love us, Dear," Dotty added as she finished putting dinner on the table. Phillip and Jamie came tearing into the dining room and ran for the same chair next to Lee. Jamie got there first.

"Hey Worm-brain, move over into the next chair," Phillip demanded.

"No way, Geek face! I was here first," was Jamie's response.

"Boys, can we skip the name calling?"Lee said. "I don't know about you guys but I'm starving. This sure looks good."

"Lee, it's just hamburgers and salad," Amanda said with a smile. It was amazing how just the simplest things made Lee happy these days. She remembered a day not too long ago when he wouldn't' be caught dead staying home like normal people and making hamburgers. She couldn't wait to tell him about the baby now. Seeing him with Phillip and Jamie made her realize what a great father he was going to be. She lightly stroked her stomach. Just as she was about to sit down at the table, the telephone rang. "Seeing as I'm still up, I guess I'll get it." She picked up the phone in the kitchen. "Hello?"

"Amanda, I hate to interrupt your quality family time but I really need to talk to Lee for a minute."

"Can he call you back in about a half hour Francine? We just sat down to eat."

"I really need to talk to him now." This was too important to wait. She needed to warn Lee of his upcoming visitor. She was just grateful she had convinced Candice to wait until morning. Amanda certainly didn't need any extra stress right now. It was better to let Lee figure out a way to tell Amanda than have the truth run into her head-on.

"Francine, you're not going to say anything about our conversation earlier?"Amanda asked in alarm.

"No, it's much more serious than that." Amanda breathed a sigh of relief. She certainly didn't want anyone beating her to the punch. She wanted to be the one to tell him he was going to be a father for the first time, but it did make her wonder what could be more serious.

"Okay, Francine, I'll go get him."

"Oh, Amanda before you go, how are you feeling?"

"Much better. Thank you for asking." Francine's obvious concern touched Amanda. _Maybe we're finally past all the trouble we've had with each other,_ she thought. "Just a second I'll get Lee."

"Francine is on the phone for you, Lee," she said as she took her place at the table.

"Can't it wait?"He said a little annoyed.

"She said it was important," Amanda explained as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Alright, but this better be good," an exasperated Lee commented as he walked toward the kitchen to talk to her. "Yeah, what is it?" he barked into the receiver.

"Go to your apartment tomorrow morning alone. You're going to have a visitor from our past that might upset Amanda."

"Who is it and since when do you care if Amanda gets upset?"

"I can't talk right now," she hissed into the phone not wanting her unexpected houseguest to overhear her."Just be prepared for a surprise."

"Francine, where is the soap?" Lee heard an oddly familiar female voice call from the background.

"Just do it Lee!" and with that Francine hung up on him.

_What in the hell is going on?_ Lee wondered with a shake of his head as he stared at the phone. "Huh, I guess I'll find out tomorrow," he said aloud as he dropped the receiver back into its cradle, walked back to the table and took his place between Amanda and Jamie.

"What was that all about?"Amanda asked curiously.

"Oh, you know how Francine is. She wouldn't tell me what was going on. She just said to be prepared for a surprise." Lee smiled as he thought of his upcoming birthday. _I bet that's what this is all about._

"Surprise?" _I'm going to kill her,_ Amanda thought.

"It's interesting. You had a little meeting with her today and all of a sudden, she's talking about surprises."

"So?" Amanda said, putting on her best innocent smile. "What's so interesting about that?"

"Just that I have a birthday coming up next week," He reminded her again.

"Oh, That."

"Yeah, that. Isn't that what your meeting with Francine was all about?"

"Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't," Amanda said coyly.

"_You're _impossible," Lee threw her words back in her face with a good-natured smile.

Amanda decided to change the subject. "So, Fellas, are you all packed? Your dad's coming for you first thing in the morning."

"I am, but Phillip's not." Jamie said as he gave his brother a now-you're-gonna-get-it look.

"That's okay. I'll help you with whatever you need after dinner," She said quickly, trying to avoid a fight between the brothers. Lee leaned over toward Amanda.

"Maybe you can pack an overnight bag for yourself," He whispered in her ear, his hazel eyes dancing in anticipation.

"Maybe not," She said, knowing what he wanted, but also realizing that this would be the last time she'd have with her sons for a while.

"What?" Dotty inquired at seeing the sexy looks passing between her daughter and the man she loved..

"Nothing," Lee and Amanda said in unison as they looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"You two are so weird!" Jamie said.

"They're in love, Stupid," Phillip said elbowing his brother.

"Hey now, Chief," Lee said. "You don't need to call your brother stupid."

"Yeah," Jamie said as he stuck his tongue out at Phillip.

"That's not necessary either, Jamie." Amanda said. "I thought we were going to have a nice family dinner. Can't you guys just be nice to each other for a change?"

"That's difficult for brothers to do." Dotty interjected. They all laughed.

After dinner was over with and the dishes done, the boys were in their room, finishing their packing and Lee and Amanda were outside leaning against his car.

"I had a great time tonight, even if I did lose at Monopoly."

"You gotta watch out for Jamie. Once he gets Boardwalk, it's all over. Besides, you should have learned by now how clever is it at cheating." They laughed together for a moment as Lee held her close to him.

"It's so great to be part of a real family for the first time in my life," He said softly as kissed her gently.

"I'm glad."

He wrapped his arms around her more tightly. "Are you sure you don't want to come over tonight?' He asked with a mischievous grin.

"I'd like to, but I really want to see the boys off tomorrow."

"Okay I understand."

"You do," She said raising her eyebrows in surprise as he'd been becoming increasingly more frustrated lately by the secrecy of their marriage.

"Okay, no. I want a little alone time with my wife, but I have no choice accept it. I know that with our situation, I'm not the number one man in your life. Your young men in there come first," Lee said with a nod toward the house. As he glanced up to the window of the bedroom that the two boys shared and chuckled as he saw the curtains being hurriedly closed.

"What?"Amanda questioned.

"It seems we had an audience for a moment," Lee answered.

"I'm not really surprised," Amanda said. "Since Mother's been dropping her anvil-sized hints about you and me getting married, they've been watching us like hawks to see if it seems like we're getting more serious."

Lee smiled at his wife. "I am as serious about you as it gets. I...I just...I wish we didn't have to keep living like this."

Amanda chewed her lip thoughtfully and said, "Maybe we don't." She knew that with a baby on the way, their mystery marriage had to end soon. That wasn't something she wanted to bring up just yet though, not like this, not until they could be guaranteed have some uninterrupted time together.

"Yeah?" Lee said hopefully.

"Since we don't have to work tomorrow, how about if I come by first thing in the morning after Joe picks up the boys so we can talk?"

"Good idea, though talking wasn't the uppermost thing on my mind," he said as he kissed her again, becoming so lost in her that he completely forgot about Francine's warning.

Upstairs, in Phillip and Jamie's room, Phillip was packing, and Jamie was taking the opportunity to spy on Lee and Amanda.

"Phillip, come here! You gotta see this!" Jamie said. Phillip ran to the window just in time to see Lee and Amanda in a passionate embrace.

"Whoa!"

Outside, Lee and Amanda broke apart, both trying to catch their breath.

Lee looked skyward trying to regain what little control he had over his newlywed urges."Amanda, if I don't get out of here soon, you're not going to get rid of me tonight. Besides that, we've got an audience again," Lee noted as he tilted his head in the general direction of the boys' bedroom window. Amanda turned just in time to see the boys dive for cover behind the curtains.

"I can't believe they're spying on me. I think they're learning a little too much from you."

"Oh, so do you think they'll follow their parents' lead and enter the family business?"

"That's not funny, Lee," Amanda said in horror as she pulled back from him.

"Okay. No more spy family jokes. See you tomorrow. Tell...uh...Joe I said hello." They kissed one more time before he got in his car and drove away. Amanda headed to the house, ready to have a talk with her sons.

Meanwhile, upstairs, the boys were talking about what they just saw.

"So..." Jamie said. "Do you think they're 'doing it'?"

"What? You mean Mom and Lee?"

"Yeah."

"Don't be a dweeb!"

"I was just wondering. She spends an awful lot of nights away from home."

"She works for a film company, Bozo. Those kinds of people always work weird hours." Amanda entered the room.

"If you have questions, Boys, you should really ask me yourself."

"We were just talking about your job, Mom." Jamie said quickly, not wanting to her to know what they were really talking about.

"Ah. I see." She said. "Do you need any help with your packing, Sweetheart?" She asked Phillip.

"No, Mom. I think I got it."

"Now I want you both to behave yourselves while you're at your dad's house. I don't want to hear anymore reports of you playing tricks on your stepmother."

"Aw, Mom." Phillip said. "We were just having a little fun."

"Yeah," Jamie agreed. "Besides, Carrie's an easy target."

"How do you mean?" Amanda asked.

"She just tries too hard to please us. We could tell her the moon was purple and she'd agree just to get along with us."

"Well, Carrie doesn't have much experience with kids."

"Neither does Lee." Phillip pointed out. "But he doesn't act like a total doofus around us, like Carrie does." Amanda smiled.

"Yeah. He just tries to be our friend."Jamie added.

"I think that's what Carrie's trying to do, too. She wants to make your dad happy and you two are a part of his happiness, so she figures that if she makes you happy, she'll make him happy. Besides, I remember a time when you weren't really very crazy about Lee either and he was trying really hard. It'll take some time but Carrie will come around too. She doesn't get to spend as much time with you as Lee does. Plus Lee had an advantage...He's a guy too, so he knows how you're little minds work"

"But she doesn't have to agree with everything we say. I kind of like it when Lee argues with us."

"Well, why don't you try telling her that?"

"I guess we could."

"Okay. Don't stay up too late. Your dad is coming to get you at the crack of dawn and I want you to get plenty of sleep."

"Okay," Both boys said.

Before leaving their room, she gestured to the window and said, "Oh, and by the way...I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't spy on me anymore. Remember it won't be long until you're dating. It would be awfully embarrassing to have your mother watching you out _her_ bedroom window." She then smiled sweetly and said, "Good-night, Fellas."

"Oh, man I can't believe we got busted," Phillip laughed

Amanda went downstairs and found her mother sitting on the couch. "Well, I think I need to have a long talk with the boys when they get back from Joe's"

"Why? What's going on?"

"I overheard part of a conversation they were having. They're curious about how far my relationship with Lee has gone."

"I can't blame them for that. I've wondered about that myself."

"Mother..."

"Well, you don't honestly expect me to believe that every night you spend away from home is actually spent working, do you?"

"Well..."

"Let's talk about that incident about three weeks ago or so with bit of Lee's clothing turning up in your laundry."

"Mother, I already explained to you how that happened," Amanda protested.

"Oh, yes, you spun a very entertaining yarn about how that last out of town film assignment caused the two of you to get so caught up in it that you lost track of time and had to hurriedly pack so you didn't miss your check-out time and cost IFF another day's hotel bill. Then you went on to tell me that in your frenzied packing, some of his things got mixed up with yours."

"Yes," Amanda nodded.

"It sounds plausible, except for one little thing. Why were your clothes and his close enough to get mixed up in the first place?"Dotty asked her daughter with a wicked gleam in her eyes. Then there's last night. You and Lee supposedly just wrapped up this latest film project of yours, but all of a sudden, you have to spend all night in the editing room?"

"We had, you know, some last minute adjustments to make to it," Amanda said evasively.

"I don't buy it, not when these _last minute adjustments_ that were needed just happened to fall on a night when you knew the boys wouldn't be home."

"Mother..."

"Well, I don't. I don't think you were in the editing room, I think you were in the bedroom."

Amanda smiled as she remembered the smile on Lee's face that morning when he woke up with her beside him."Okay, you win, Mother. I spent the night at Lee's apartment last night."

"I thought so. You see? Now, was that so hard? You'll find, Amanda that telling the truth is a lot easier than making up a bunch of lies."

"Well, I'm not about to tell my teenage sons where I spend my nights."

"I don't expect you to, Dear, but you seem to forget that I'm an adult. I honestly don't care if you spend the night with Lee. I know that you love each other very much, that he makes you happy and that's all I'm worried about. I just hope you're being careful." Amanda burst out laughing at the irony of her mother's statement. "What did I say that was so funny?"

"Nothing, Mother. I'm going to go on up to bed. I have to work early in the morning," Amanda said cringing slightly at telling her mother yet another lie, but she desperately needed to spend some alone time with her husband so that she could give him her happy news and they could figure out their next move together.

"Okay. Good-night, Love." Amanda kissed her mother and hurried up the stairs.


	5. Chapter 5

During the drive home, Lee had realized just how much he was going to miss having the boys around for the next couple of weeks. Being part of a family was much more fulfilling than he had ever imagined. He could only hope that he was doing a good job. He reflected back on his conversation with Amanda. Maybe, he thought to himself, it was time to make his role as stepfather official and take it on full time. The boys were obviously curious and what kind of message was he sending them about his commitment to them when he went home to his bachelor pad every night? They were bright boys. It wouldn't be long before they figured it out anyway. Better to come clean now than to have them figure it out for themselves. He was looking forward to talking it over with Amanda in the morning. _Even if we decide not to let the agency know, Amanda should really be able to tell her family_, he corrected himself, _our family, that we are married.__  
><em>

As he entered the apartment, he suddenly remembered that he was supposed to meet this mystery person alone in the morning. He wondered silently what Francine was up to. She had never been wild about the fact that he and Amanda were a couple. He also knew that she was a little jealous of Amanda and that she no longer believed the story Amanda had told her about a break-up, but how far would she go to split them up? Would she really be spiteful enough to try something like that? _No_, _Francine would never purposely do anything to hurt Amanda or me. We've been friends for too long. We've seen each other through some pretty rough spots. Still, what's with all this mystery? Maybe it's about a case we worked on together. Well I'm certainly not going to drive myself crazy trying to figure out how Francine's mind works.. I'll call Amanda in the morning and tell her that I'll come over to the house for lunch instead of her meeting me here._ After that decision was made, Lee's thoughts turned back to his wife and the heated kisses they'd shared in her driveway before he'd left. He sighed in frustration that they still weren't living like a normal couple, cursing himself for being stupid enough to suggest the ridiculous mystery marriage. He quickly stripped out of his clothes, tossing them violently onto the chair in the corner, crawled into painfully empty bed and fell asleep dreaming of his wife.

He awoke in the morning to the sound of someone mercilessly beating on his front door. He looked at the clock on the nightstand in disgust and saw that it was flashing twelve O'clock. "Guess it's time for new backup batteries" he grumbled to himself as he got up and threw on a robe. "Alright just a minute!" he yelled toward the door. Looking at his watch he realized that it was much too late to try to keep Amanda from coming over. If Joe was on time, and Joe was always on time these days since he'd remarried and has his wife to keep him in line, then Amanda should be on her way to the apartment now.

The pounding on the door began again."I said I was coming!" Lee shouted as he opened the door, "You're really beginning to try my patience, Francine!" he shouted as he opened the door and found Amanda standing there.

"Good morning to you too, Sweetheart," She said kissing him as she entered the apartment.

"Why didn't you use your key?"He asked, a little irritated at being woken up, but at the same time happy to see her.

"It's on the key ring with my office keys and I left it at home by mistake." She glanced at his state of undress and said, "How come you're just getting up?"

"My clock isn't working."

"I told you that you needed to replace the batteries in that thing," she smiled as she kissed him again.

"Are you going to become one of those nagging wives now?" He teased as he slipped an arm around her waist and lightly nuzzled her neck. "If you are, could you save it for later? You know I'm not a morning person, especially when I haven't had my coffee yet."

"Why don't I get some coffee started while you get dressed?"

"Or you could get _un_dressed," Lee suggested in a low growl against her ear as he nipped at her earlobe. "I can think of something that would wake me up much better than coffee." He then lowered his lips to the tender spot on her neck that he knew drove her crazy.

Amanda sighed at her husband's touch, filled with a fierce desire for him, but she knew that if she let herself get distracted, they've never talk about the things they needed to. She slithered out of his grasp, shuddered at little at the passion-filled look in Lee's eyes, badly wanting to give in, but knowing that it was not the right time. Just as he was reaching for her again, she poked one finger into his chest to keep him at a distance and said, "Save it for another time, Bug Fella'. We need to have a talk. Coffee will just have to be your wake-up call this morning." She then hurried to the kitchen before her resolve could weaken. "Joe was a little early picking up the boys," she called, "So, I was able to get here a little earlier that I planned on."

Lee heard her voice coming from the kitchen but her words weren't really registering as he'd started thinking about what Francine had said on the phone about whoever this mystery visitor possibly upsetting Amanda. He was now preoccupied with how to get her out of the apartment. He thought seriously about calling Billy to have him call Amanda into the office under some false pretense, reports needing done or something. _What the hell am I doing? _He thought. _Why am I listening to Francine, anyway? Amanda and I have been through so much together and she's so strong, there's nothing she can't handle. Besides, Amanda and I have never lied to each other. Why start now just because Francine said so? _He shook his head thinking the whole thing was ridiculous.

"Lee Stetson, you're not hearing a word I'm saying!"His wife's voice sounded causing him to jump as she re-entered the living room.

"I'm sorry Amanda, I'm not awake yet...Listen I'm going to go jump in the shower and then I promise you'll have my undivided attention."

"Okay , but don't take too long. I have something important I want to talk to you about."

"I have something important to talk to you about too," Lee said having decided that it was long past time to end the mystery marriage once and for all and just come clean to everyone and damn the consequences.

"Then you'd better hurry up and get in the shower."

"You could join me...and make up for interrupting the spectacular dream I was having," he teased knowing that she wouldn't agree.

"And just what were you dreaming about?" Amanda asked him with a bemused expression as she crossed the room and found herself enfolded in her husband's embrace.

"Come shower with me and I'll show you."

"I think I'll skip this one," she grinned as she played with the flaps on his robe. "If we get something started this morning then I'll never get to talk to you about anything," she said, trying to control her desire for him.

"Oh, you could talk" he said as he kissed her neck.

"Yeah but you wouldn't be listening." She let out a little sigh at her husband's attentions.

"Mm-hmm." he said as his lips once again found a tender spot on Amanda's neck that he knew would get to her.

"Stop that and go get your shower," she whispered as she desperately tried to keep her body from responding to his advances.

"Okay," he said as he backed up toward the hall leading to the bedroom with her still locked in his arms, "but you're coming with me." Having seen the look in her eyes and hearing the tone in her voice, he knew he'd gotten to her.

'Mm-mm," she protested as his hands slid down to cup her bottom, but her protest was weaker this time as she gave in to the raging inferno that started every time her husband touched her. Before she knew what was happening, she found her arms sliding up his chest to his shoulders, seemingly of their own accord, her hands around his neck urging him toward her. As soon as his lips descended on her, she was lost and knew without a doubt that he'd won.

'Mm-hmmm," he murmured against her lips as he guided them toward the bedroom, locked in her passionate embrace.

They stumbled into the bedroom together finally forced to break their heated kiss. Amanda sighed at seeing the ardent longing in his eyes, and choked out in a raspy passion-filled voice, "You win. After all, I haven't had my shower yet today."

"I like winning," He said in a husky growl as he captured her lips again with his own.

Amanda pulled back from his kiss for a moment and said, "Don't you get cocky, Mr. Stetson."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Mrs. Stetson," He said as he began to work on the buttons of her blouse as he backed her toward the bathroom leaving a trail of her clothes on the bedroom floor in his wake and shucking off his robe.

"You just better make sure that shower's good and hot," Amanda whispered alluringly as she pressed into him lightly nipping at his neck her desire for him building with every touch.

"With the two of us sharing it, trust me, My Love, it will be," he replied in a seductive tone as he pulled her back into his arms and kissed her fiercely reveling in her enthusiastic response. Lee was still amazed at times, that just being in the same room with his beautiful wife could bring out the most primal yearning in him. He felt like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet. No matter how many times they made love, he found that he always wanted more, that he couldn't get enough of her. The simplest touch from her set him on fire. No, it was more than that. Sometimes just the look of love in her eyes that she gave him did that all by itself. No other woman had ever made him feel that way. He pulled back, looked her in the eyes and whispered hoarsely, "I love you."

"And I love you," Amanda replied with equal fervor. She extracted herself from his arms long enough to turn the water on then said, "Shall we?"

"I thought you'd never ask," her husband answered.

The newlyweds spent the next half hour in the shower, re-discovering each other until the hot water ran out, leaving them no choice but to evacuate the shower for warmer temperatures. "Brrr," Lee said with a shiver as he reached for a towel.

"You have no one to blame but yourself," Amanda teased as she wrapped a fluffy bath towel around herself and reached for her husband's hair dryer to use on her sopping hair. "You were the one who insisted on showering together."

"Yeah, well, I didn't notice you putting up too much of a fight," He countered with a playful swat to her behind.

"Hey, stop that. Let me take care of my hair so I can warm up a little before you get things started again," Amanda protested as she turned to face the mirror.

"If you wanna' warm up, I've got the perfect solution in mind for that," Lee said with an impish grin as he grasped her waist from behind. "It'll warm you right up," He pulled her wet hair aside and began a new assault on the tender skin of her neck.

The moment was interrupted by yet another incessant pounding on the apartment's front door. Lee sighed in frustration. He'd become so wrapped up in his wife, that he'd once again pushed aside Francine's ominous warning from the night before about a surprise visitor. _Damn, I'm too late, maybe it's better this way...Amanda and I don't have any secrets and we sure shouldn't start now. Francine is probably blowing this whole thing way out of proportion anyway. How bad could it possibly be compared to all the other things he and Amanda had faced together. _

"You better get that," Amanda said. "Whoever it is, is knocking as if they've got the devil on their tail." She then shrugged out of her husband's embrace and turned on the hair dryer to complete her task.

"Yeah," Lee grumbled as made his way back into the bedroom and pulled on his robe before walking through the apartment to get to the front door. "This better be damned important," he yelled as he jerked the door open, his jaw dropping at the sight of the person on the other side.

"Lee, darling!" Candice exclaimed as she launched herself at him and caught him up in an embrace.

"Lee, was that Francine at the d-" Amanda began as she entered the room having decided she wanted to see who was beating on the door as if their life depended on it, but stopped mid-sentence standing in stunned silence at the sight of her husband in another woman's arms.


	6. Chapter 6

While Amanda stood stock-still, Lee pushed the clinging woman off him and said, "Look, I don't know who you are, but this isn't going to work. Candice Davenport has been dead for years. I was there when she died. I saw the explosion; I read the coroner's report."

Amanda frantically searched her memory banks for any mention of that name. When she came up empty, she realized that she was just standing there staring at this woman standing in the hall. Finally finding her voice, she marched resolutely to her husband's side, slipping an arm around his waist and said coolly, "Friend of yours?" She was hoping this would be a brief reunion; she and Lee had so much to talk about.

Candice's mouth dropped open as she took in the woman who'd so blatantly wrapped herself around the father of her child. She also took in the state of undress they were both in and realized what had been going on in this apartment. _So this is my replacement, the one Francine was so worried about?_ Candice thought smugly as she looked Amanda up and down. _I shouldn't have any trouble at all winning Lee's heart again._ She then decided to disregard Amanda, turning her attention back to Lee. "It was all staged. I escaped and have been hiding for years."

"You'll have to forgive me if I don't buy it," Lee said bitterly. "I've run into an awful lot of phony doubles in the last few years...doubles of Francine, of Dorothy, even Amanda, here," Lee said as he pulled his wife closer. "You can't tell me you just showed up on Francine's doorstep and she bought your whole story. I thought she was a better agent than to let a bunch of sentimental memories blind her. Well I'm sorry, Lady, but I'm not as gullible as Francine is and I refuse to listen to what is obviously a pack of lies. Now, if you don't mind, _we,_" he indicated his wife still wrapped in his arms, "have plans for the day, so I suggest you see yourself out."

"Lee, you've got to believe me," Candice begged. "There's so much that I need to tell you."

"Maybe I should go," Amanda managed to squeak out. The way that she was looking at Lee as if she wanted to devour him whole and looking at her as if she were her mortal enemy, this woman was obviously another woman from her husband's past and apparently one he'd been intimate with. The thought of it had her feeling nauseated.

"Yes, maybe you should!" Candice agreed. After all, it wouldn't be long until Lee was confessing her undying love to her and Amanda certainly wouldn't want to be there for that.

"No!" Lee said adamantly as he gripped his wife tighter. "You were invited here. _She_ was not." He stared pointedly at Candice and said, "I think you're the one who needs to be leaving," he snarled at Candice.

"Lee, you have to hear what I came to tell you...I'll go through any kind of test you want to prove who I am...but later, Right now I really need to explain some things to you. Wait, I know! I'll tell you things that only the real Candice would know about you," Candice said as she plotted to get a now green Amanda out of the room and out of Lee's arms for good. "I can tell you all the juicy details of that night in Monte Carlo."

"Lee, please, I really need to go," Amanda pleaded as she tried to wriggle out of his grasp. She knew if she didn't get out of there soon she was going to be sick, the stress of the situation exacerbating her pregnancy symptoms. She wanted Lee to know that he was going to be a father more than anything, but she didn't want him finding out by surprise until she'd found the perfect way to give him the news.

Lee realized that Amanda had taken all she could of this conversation for the moment and agreed to let her go. "Alright, " he stared deeply into her eyes as he held on to her. "You go, for now... but I want you back here in two hours..._We_ still have a lot of important things to talk about and this..." he motioned in Candice's direction, "...doesn't change that." He said as he gave Candice an icy stare. She nodded silently and then Lee said. "I love you," as he kissed her tenderly.

"I love you too," She said softly as she kissed him back.

"Remember, two hours," He reminded her as he reluctantly let her go.

Amanda stepped hurried back into the bedroom, leaned against the door for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts. Her stomach was doing flip-flops and she stood there motionless as she tried to force it to calm down, but it was no use. She barreled to the bathroom and expelled the contents of her stomach wishing that she could expel the sight of the acid blond in her husband's arms from her memory just as easily. When her nausea subsided, she sat there for a moment, her eyes drifting to the tile of the bath, still damp from their shared shower. She vividly recalled every moment of that interlude, how they'd touched, kissed and teased each other, the way that lovers do. How he'd told her how beautiful she was, how he loved her, needed her and how much he wanted her. She couldn't help but wonder if he'd once whispered those same words to Candice.

She shook of that thought and shakily pulled herself to her feet a determined look on her face. She had already decided where she was going to spend that first hour. She was going straight to the office to do some digging about this woman and then she was going to use the second hour to drag some answers out of Francine by whatever means necessary. Her mind made up, she resolutely marched back into the bedroom and began to get dressed. As she glanced at the closet, she smiled a little as seeing her clothes hanging next to Lee's. That's something she knew no other woman had ever shared with him. He'd only lived in the apartment for a little over a year and they'd been together that whole time. He's bought all new furniture when he moved in so she knew that while she may not have been the only woman he'd ever slept with, she was the only one he'd ever shared this apartment with, shared this bed with. Those thoughts gave her some comfort.

Once she finished dressing, she caught sight of Lee's clothes haphazardly slung across the chair. She shook her head and said aloud, "Some things never change." While Lee had changed a lot since she'd known him and had started to make more of an effort to keep his place neat for her, he was still something of a slob and had a bad habit of just tossing his clothes around and letting them stay wherever they landed. She made quick work of cleaning up the mess he'd made of them, and neatly made the bed.

Lee walked through his apartment, glancing down the hall at the closed bedroom door, thinking about Amanda. He hadn't wanted to let her go. He didn't get to spend enough time with her as it was. _She really looked like she was going to be sick. I wonder if she's okay,_ he thought remembering her pale color. He took a deep breath and walked back to the living room.

"Okay. Let' hear it!" He snapped at Candice. He was worried about Amanda and he didn't want to waste any time with nonsense.

Candice stared at him. She knew Lee would be angry but she had no idea how fiercely protective of Amanda he would be. She definitely had her work cut out for her. Somehow, she had to get through to Lee. Leah was depending on her. "Look Lee, I know you're confused and that you don't believe me."

"You've obviously got the wrong guy here. I'm not a bit confused. What I am, is annoyed. As you can tell," he said with a gesture toward the bedroom then to the robe he was wearing, "I wasn't exactly up for any uninvited guests. I suggest you start talking because I want you gone by the time Amanda comes back here later. I don't intend to have you disrupting our lives." He turned as he heard the bedroom door open behind him.

"I'll see you later," Amanda said as she re-entered the room, her still-damp hair pulled back into a ponytail.

"Hey, not so fast," Lee said as he reached for her, taking both of her hands in his. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, Sweetheart," Amanda answered with a bright smile belying the knot the knot that had formed in the pit of her stomach as the appearance of this woman who obviously was a part of her husband's sordid past.

"Amanda..."Lee said not quite buying it.

"I'm fine," she repeated. "I'm just gonna' go check in at the office and work on a couple of things and we'll catch up later."

"Count on it," Lee said with a smile. "We're still going to spend the day together just like we talked about last night. I have all kinds of things planned for you today."

"I'll just bet you do," she said at seeing the devilish glint in his eyes, but found that she could no longer muster up the same enthusiasm she'd felt in her husband's arms earlier.

"I love you," Lee said softly as he kissed her tenderly.

"Yeah, I love you too," Amanda said, then abruptly turned and hastened out the front door before her tormented emotions could get the better of her.

After his wife's departure, Lee let out a frustrated sigh, threw himself into the armchair in his living room. "Well, Candy...or whoever you are...I'm listening," he said disgustedly. "You interrupted my day off, so you'd better have a damn good story to tell." His patience was seriously wearing thin.

"My God, Lee you don't have to be so mean. We were once very special to each other."

"See that's screw up number one. The real Candice would know that we were just friends."

Candice raised her eyebrows at Lee's comment. "Oh really?"She said as she became annoyed with him. "I seem to remember many nights of painting the town red after wrapping a case and then going to our hotel and melting the sheets."

"Candice and I were just friends...Friends with benefits, granted, but she knew I was just out for a good time. I didn't take any relationship seriously back then. We were comfortable with each other, cared about each other, but it wasn't some grand romance."

"It was more than that to me." She said softly as she reached out to touch him. He grabbed her wrist and pushed her away from him. He rose and started pacing.

"Let's get one thing straight, right now. Even if you really are Candice Davenport, that doesn't change anything. I still love Amanda." She looked at him in disbelief. "Do you understand me? I _love_ Amanda and I always will. Nothing you say or do is going to change that. I never loved you. I didn't allow myself to love anyone back then. I didn't even love myself in those days, so how could I love anyone else?"

Candice started to panic. Maybe she had made a terrible mistake. _No, he's just saying these awful things because he's hurt, he's angry and he has a right to be,_ she rationalized. "Look, Lee," she sat down on the couch and stared at him "Since you've given me a time constraint here, I don't have the luxury of spilling all the details of my escape and exile. You're more than welcome, as is Francine, to sit in on the debriefing that I'm sure Billy will do when he finds out I'm alive. This is not the way I wanted to do this, but you've given me no choice," Candice started. "Lee, there is someone at Francine's that you have to come with me to meet."

"What makes you think I'd go anywhere with you?"

"When I disappeared, I found something out, something I've been dying to tell you for years now."

"Well, you're here and I'm here, so what's stopping you?"

Candice pulled a snapshot out of her pocket. "Lee Stetson, you have a daughter," she informed him as she handed him the picture.

"She's a beautiful little girl, but I don't believe she's mine. While I may have been a little wild back in the day, I was never reckless," he said in a bitter tone, but at the same time, frantically trying to remember if there'd ever been a time that he and Candice had indeed been reckless.

Candice knew he didn't believe a word she was saying."Please just come with me and meet her. She's with Francine and if we leave now you can meet her and still be back in time to meet Amanda."

"If I go with you, you have to go straight to Billy's office after we're through."

"Whatever, you want, Lee. I just don't want to let Leah down. That's her name, you know."

"Nice touch, naming her after me. You sure thought this one out," Lee said disbelievingly.

"I've told her everything about you. She even knows what you looked like back when we were together. I've kept this old photograph for years," She said as she pulled out the same one that she had shown her daughter earlier. "You remember this?"

Lee glanced at the old photograph of him with one arm around Francine and the other around Candice, all three wearing goofy party hats. "Yeah, Francine's thirtieth birthday party, March 1982," He said with a laugh. "Though she refused to admit she was turning thirty."

Candice laughed as well and said, "I remember. It was right before we started working on the Carrerra case. Efraim had just stated with the agency. Remember, how mad you were that Billy assigned a rookie to work with us?" Now, she was getting somewhere. If she could get him to take a walk down memory lane with her, maybe she'd get a little further. "I didn't know it then, but I was already expecting Leah at the time." She nodded toward the other photo in his hand. "She'll be five in October."

Lee's expression turned cold again as he examined the photo of the child she claimed was his and said, "I can't believe you would use a poor innocent child in your scheme." However, as he thought about it, it occurred to him that she'd have been a year old at the time he'd first met the woman who had become his wife. Was it possible that he had already been a father when he'd met Amanda?

"It's not a scheme, I promise you. Just please come with me." She pleaded. "Once you see her in person, you'll know without a doubt that you're her father."

"Fine, but you can drive your own car, that way there won't be any reason for you to come back here." He didn't want her invading the home he had up to this point, only shared with his wife. "You wait here while I get dressed."

He made a beeline for his bedroom, locking the door behind him. The way she'd thrown herself at him, he wasn't taking any chances that she'd tried to invade his bedroom as well. He smiled when he saw that his wife had picked up his discarded clothes and made the bed. "That's my Amanda," He said aloud as he dressed as quickly as he could. After dressing, he stepped into the bathroom to comb out his damp hair and noticed that Amanda had also neatly hung up the towels from their shower. He smiled again as the memories of their recent lovemaking washed over him.

Finished with his task, he walked back into the living room and said firmly, "Let's get out of here and get this over with, I'll call Billy from my car phone to let him in on our little surprise. Then I plan to spend the rest of the day with Amanda once this is all over."

"Whatever you think is best," Candice replied. As Lee shuffled her out the door, she realized that this wasn't going the way she planned at all. She'd thought Francine had been exaggerating about the seriousness of his current relationship. This Amanda had some kind of hold on him that she hadn't counted on. _But I have a hold on him that she doesn't have. I have his child,_ she reassured herself. _Everything will change the minute he sees Leah and he'll realize that he's meant to be with us._ That thought in mind, she laid out a plan to convince Lee that the three of them should be a family and make Amanda just another name in his black book.


	7. Chapter 7

Francine paced back and forth with a worried look on her face while Leah sat at her kitchen table drawing pictures. _This is just not worth it. People thought I was crazy all those years for not letting anyone close, well now I have and what has it gotten me? A mess, that's what. What am I going to do? Amanda trusted me and now I'm keeping this big secret from her, but Candice trusted me too and I didn't tell her the truth about Amanda and she has a right to know that Lee's married. I'm just glad I managed to convince Candice to leave Leah with me until she had a chance to break the news to Lee. And what about Leah? _She was jolted out of her thoughts by an insistent knocking on the door. _Don't tell me they're here already!_ She opened the door to find Amanda standing there. Amanda pushed her way inside, not waiting to be invited in. 

"All right, Francine. I want some answers and I want them now!" She demanded. She'd just spent the last hour at the agency pulling the file on the presumed-dead, but very-much-alive-and-hitting-on-her-husband Candice Davenport.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, as she tried to play innocent until she could find out how much Amanda knew.

"Francine, have you ever been around a pregnant woman? Let me explain something to you...we're full of raging hormones that we're just waiting to unleash on someone. Now normally I'm a pretty rational person but my patience is wearing thin. You're going to tell me what that woman is doing at Lee's and stop playing games or you're going to suffer the consequences. And don't try to tell me you don't know her. She already told me that she was staying with you and that you told her where we live," Amanda accused.

"Suffer the consequences? Oh, that's rich. What are you going to do make me stand in the corner, make me go to bed without dinner?" Francine mocked the stress of being caught in the middle getting on her last nerve. "I sent her there because she's my friend and she has something important she has to tell Lee. You should be grateful to me. She wanted to hunt you guys down last night but I talked her out of it. I thought you might like to have your family spared that scene. And what do you mean where _we_ live? You may be married to Lee, but you don't live together, remember?"

"Grateful? Did I hear you right? Grateful, ha! That's a laugh! Do you know what I was planning to do this morning? I'll tell you what I was planning on doing. I was going to tell Lee that he is going to be a father. Now you tell me, what could possibly be more important that the news I have for him? And yes, I'm well aware of the fact that we don't live together, but that's something that we'd be working on changing right now if that...that...witch hadn't shown up when she did before I got a chance to talk to Lee!"

"Amanda, could you please get a grip on yourself and try to keep your voice down? We're not alone."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Francine. My whole world might be crumbling down and you're worried that I might wake up Jonathan or do you have some other ex-flame of Lee's hidden here just waiting for my back to be turned so she can pounce on him?"As the words left Amanda's lips, Leah came bounding into the room with a drawing in her hand.

"Auntie Francine! Look at the picture I made for my daddy!" She said proudly displaying her artwork. Francine picked up the drawing and looked at it as if trying to figure out what it was. Amanda eyes were riveted to the little girl that stood before her. Leah was starting to get uncomfortable. She quickly attached herself to Francine's leg.

"My name's Amanda." Amanda said as she bent down to make eye contact with her. "What's yours?"

"My mommy said I can't talk to people that I don't know. The bad men might come and take me."

"It's alright, Sweetheart, I'm a friend of your Aunt Francine's. I have two little boys of my own, only they aren't so little anymore." She smiled as she tried to figure out why she was so drawn to this child.

"Leah, after my daddy and I got my middle name from my Auntie Francine." the four-year-old answered after she got a nod of approval from her Aunt Francine.

Amanda looked at Francine, who was still trying to figure out the little girl's drawing."Auntie Francine?" She said.

"Amanda, you'd better sit down." Francine said taking her by the arm. "We need to talk." They sat down on the couch.

"So, do you like the picture, Auntie Francine?" Leah asked, bouncing up and down.

Francine looked alarmed. What could she say? She still didn't know what it was supposed to be a picture of."Uh...yes...it's...uh..."

"Leah, why don't you tell us about it?" Amanda suggested, rescuing Francine. A grateful Francine smiled in relief at Amanda.

"It's just like the picture my mommy has. It's got my mommy and my daddy and my auntie Francine." She said. Amanda looked at her carefully and saw a happy glow in the little girls' sparkling hazel-green eyes. _Eyes like Lee's_, she thought. Then the truth hit her like a ton of bricks, her eyes, her name, the woman showing up unexpectedly at the apartment. A wave of nausea swept over her as she realized what Candice wanted to talk to Lee about.

Francine noticed that Amanda didn't look well. "Leah, why don't you go draw a picture for your mommy for when she comes back?"She told the child.

"Okay." She said as she raced back into the kitchen with the endless energy that comes with being four. "Auntie Francine, do you have a magnet so I can hang this on your frigidator," she turned to ask as she got to the kitchen door. "I want to save it to show to my daddy."

"Refrigerator, "Francine corrected before adding, "I think there is one already hanging on it. You can use it,"

As the bundle of energy raced to Francine's kitchen, Amanda said dryly, "At least your refrigerator will get _some_ use."

"Ha ha, Cute, Amanda, really cute," Francine said not at all in the mood for their normal verbal sparring after the events of the last day. The two women sat in an awkward silence for a moment, Francine being the first one to break it. "Amanda..." She began, but didn't get the chance to finish.

"Don't, Francine. You don't have to say a word. That little girl is...Lee's" Amanda struggled to say as she fought to hold back the tears forming in her eyes. Francine looked stunned.

"How did you know?"

"That unmistakable twinkle in her eyes. I've seen that same twinkle in Lee's eyes a million times. She has to be his child. That's what that woman came here for."

Francine had to admit it. "Amanda, I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to see you find out this way, but I didn't know how to tell you and even if I did, it wasn't really my place. I was worried about you especially after the way you passed out at Emelio's yesterday."

"Spare me the excuses! Friendship is about being honest and not keeping secrets from each other. I trusted you and this is how you repay me? By keeping this big secret from me?" Amanda wrung her hands as she tried to calm herself before she'd have to go running off the bathroom again, but it wasn't working. "I mean, whose side are you on here?"

"Now, wait just a damn minute, Amanda. It seems to me that you and Lee have been keeping some pretty damn big secrets of your own, so don't go getting all self-righteous with me. I mean, did either one of you bother to let me in on the fact that you were married? No! I never even heard that you were engaged. In fact, now that I think about it, you not only have been keeping this huge secret, but you blatantly lied to me just six months ago spinning this yarn about how you dumped Lee because it was "for the best." Not that I believed it for long with the way you two were acting, but that's not the point. The point is you're judging me for keeping a secret from you and that's all you've been doing for months, so don't you dare preach to me in your typical holier-than-thou tone about friends not keeping secrets! Aside from that, you're now keeping this huge secret from Lee. If you'd told him to start with instead of coming to me first, this might not be happening this way."

"You're right," Amanda said with a sigh. How could she argue with that?. She had deliberately lied to Francine when she'd caught them together at the office in January.

"Now about Candice...I just found out about it last night myself and I didn't want to upset you in your condition. You looked so shaky yesterday. I called last night to tell Lee to keep you away from his apartment, not because I'm on anybody's side, but because I was worried about all of you. Candice was my best friend for years before I ever met you. Now, I'm caught in the middle of something I have no desire to be caught in the middle of."

"I read the case report. She was your partner," Amanda acknowledged with a nod.

"She was much more than a partner. My father raised me to compete in a man's world. 'The whole world's out there, Francine all you have to do is go out there and grab it.' If he said that once, he said it a hundred times. I guess my go get 'em attitude put other woman off but I really didn't care. Most of them weren't worth knowing anyway. Candice was different. She was the first real female friend I ever had. She took the time to get to know me and much to my surprise, I found out that having friends was worth the time and effort. When I saw the explosion that we thought killed her, part of me died with her. I knew I'd never work with a partner again. Then to top it all off, Jonathan left me standing at the altar a month later."

"Is that when you and Lee...well...you know?"

"We were both very vulnerable. We'd both just lost Candice and I'd just lost Jonathan and things just kind of happened. It wasn't long before it fell apart. Lee didn't love me and I didn't love him. We both were needy and for a while it was comforting for both of us."

"So, tell me about Candice? What happened between them?"

"Amanda, you don't really want all the sordid details."

"Francine, I really need to know. This could affect my whole future. I need to know what I'm fighting."

"Well, Candice and I started working together while Lee was in Italy working on the Spinelli thing. When he came back, she was already established at the agency. There was an instant attraction but then most women are instantly attracted to Lee. I didn't worry about it much at first. I thought Candice knew what Lee was all about. It was a hot affair that kept the agency rumor mill grinding away. I knew it wouldn't last. Lee didn't love her. She was the catch of the day and it wouldn't be long before he threw her back. I mean, he cared about her as a friend, but the way he was then, he'd never allow himself to get too close to anyone. It was actually about six months or so ago before he met you. You know how he was then."

"I remember," Amanda said softly, relieved to know that there hadn't been a deep emotional connection there.

"Unfortunately I didn't realize until was too late that she had really fallen for Lee...hard. She loved him more than anything. All she talked about was how she wanted to be with him forever. She lived in such a fantasy world that I couldn't seem to shake her out of. I'd seen Lee go through so many women by that time, it was unbelievable. I warned her about him the same way I warned you, when I first found out that you were involved with him. Nothing could convince her that Lee was not her knight in shining armor. What I failed to see, or probably just didn't want to see in your case is that Lee really is different with you. As much as I hate to admit it, he's become a better man because of you. It was kind of sad the day that I realized an era had ended. Lee had finally grown up and left his playboy days behind. He wasn't just the Scarecrow, dashing man of mystery anymore; he was Lee Stetson, new addition to the human race."

"He just needed a gentle nudge in the right direction."

"Gentle? No, Amanda, I don't think so. Meeting you was like hitting Lee over the head with a sledgehammer. He didn't know what to make of you. None of us did. I think Billy was the only one who really saw the potential there."

Amanda chuckled slightly. She was right. Billy was always more perceptive about the sparks between them, long before either of them was ready to acknowledge that there was something there. Amanda took a deep breath to brace herself and said, "So, tell me more about Candice."

"Things were starting to fall apart between Candice and Lee when we were assigned to a joint task force with the DEA, investigating the disappearance of funds to aid South America's war on coco farmers and distributers. The case was much bigger than any of us realized. We closed in on the guy we believed was the link between the US government and the Carrerra family. He'd contacted us promising to lead straight into the lion's den in exchange for immunity making this big noise about a guilty conscience, but it was a trap. He led us to a deserted strip of warehouses. Before Lee and I knew what had happened, they shot Efraim, grabbed Candice and shoved her into the back of a moving van, which then blew up. When the bomb went off, I was numb. I had just watched the best friend I ever had blown sky high. Lee and I tried to go after her and tend to Efraim, but they had us pinned down by gunfire. You know I've always pooh-poohed that woman's intuition thing that you rely on, but last night when she showed up with Leah at my door, I knew. I mean, the agent in me will still have to wait for all the test results, but I'd bet my life that that is Candice Davenport."

"Wow," Amanda said as she listened to every detail of Francine's long-winded tale.

"Yeah," Francine said grimly. "When I got offered the job working directly under Billy, I jumped at the chance. I'd never have to break in another partner again that way. That's when Efraim got moved to fabrications for a while to give him time to recover from his near-fatal gunshot would. After all that, I made a promise to myself not to get close to anyone again because it just hurt too much to lose people. First Candice, then Jonathan, and then the end of my relationship with Lee. I think that losing Jonathan right after losing Candice is what caused me to taking Lee breaking up with me harder than I normally would have. Now look at me, I've got one friend too many. No attachments; that is a much better way to go."

"That sounds a lot like how Lee was but you know what Francine, he figured out you can never have too many friends and your really honest-to-goodness true friends are going to be there no matter what."

"I know. Enough about me, we need to get back to the problem at hand." She shook her head slightly in wonder at how Amanda had this uncanny ability to get people to open up without them even realizing they were doing it until it was too late.

"What am I going to do, Francine? If she's already told him about Leah, how can I tell him about this baby?"

"Amanda, this is not exactly something you can hide for very long. I mean pretty soon your secret will be out," Francine said then to lighten the mood, added,"...way out."

Amanda laughed, and then turned serious."I need you to promise me something, Francine," Amanda realized what it was she had to do "Promise me no matter what happens, you won't say anything to Lee about my pregnancy. He's got a lot of things to figure out and I don't want to confuse things any more than they already are."

"But what about you?"

"I'll be fine. My job right now is to stand beside Lee and support him any way I can. Can I count on you, Francine?"

"Okay. I won't say anything to Lee right now, but as soon as some of the dust settles, you tell him. I don't want to have to feel guilty if something was to happen and I get to go to the doctor with you. The minute I hear anything I don't like, I'm off to Lee's office."

As Francine was finishing up with her conditions, there was a knock at the door. "Damn! They're here."


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you going to be all right?"Francine asked Amanda in concern as she noticed how frail she was looking.

"I'll be fine," Amanda answered to reassure her, but she wasn't entirely sure. Her stomach had calmed down now, but who knew what might happen once Lee saw his daughter for the first time.

"I'm going to let them in, but if you start feeling the littlest bit faint, let me know and we'll get you out of here. Lee's going to kill me for helping you keep this from him...right after he kills me for sending Candice to his apartment this morning" she said as she opened the door.

"You're early" Francine snapped as she glared at Candice.

"Don't blame me," Candice snapped back. "Lee's the one in a hurry."

Amanda swallowed hard, trying to keep her stomach under control at hearing the snooty voice behind her.

"I have to get back. Amanda's going to be back at my apartment soon". Lee pushed his way past Francine without giving her time to explain that Amanda was sitting there. "Amanda?" Lee was a little surprised that she had come to Francine on what had to be a horrific morning for her. However, Amanda never was one to let sleeping dogs lie. Francine's was a logical place for her to get answers to her questions. Much to Candice's dismay, he immediately walked over to Amanda and took her hands in his. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I know everything, about your past with Candice, your...your daughter," Amanda choked out painfully. She'd been so excited about giving her husband the news that he was going to be a father for the first time. Now that she knew that he was already a father and by a woman he'd barely cared about, her excitement had turned into dread.

At seeing the pained look on his wife's face, Lee cast an accusing look at Francine.

Francine held her hands up in surrender. "Hey don't look at me. She figured it out all on her own."

Amanda took her hand and gently turned Lee's face toward her again. As she gazed deeply into his eyes, she reassured him "It's okay. You couldn't have known. All of this happened a long time ago. It was before you and I met and way before we fell in love. It's just like my past with Joe."

Never before had Lee been so impressed with Amanda's strength and compassion. He kissed his wife tenderly and held her close. "You amaze me." _What did I do to deserve such a wonderful wife?_

"Hey what's one presumed-dead girlfriend and child compared to being held captive and tortured by Addi Birol, or being on the run from our own government, or watching you being beaten in a parking garage..."

"Slogging through a swamp being chased by psychos who were trying to kill the president, being trapped in a nest of killers on Christmas Eve..." Lee added.

"...and the hits just keep on rolling." They said together.

"We can do this, Partner," Amanda said with a firm nod.

"You bet we can," Lee said with an affectionate smile as he planted a soft kiss to her lips. "What would I do without you?" he asked in wonder as he held her close.

"I hope you never have to find out," she said as she reached up to kiss him gently grateful that their unborn child hadn't started to make her feel sick again.

Candice was beginning to feel a little nauseated however, as seeing the obvious affection Lee shared with Amanda. Under her breath, she hissed to Francine, "What is _she_ doing here?"

"Just back off, Candice," Francine was quickly tiring of being the target for everyone's frustration. "I don't have any control over who shows up at my door."

"Why did you let her in? You knew I was coming here with Lee."

"Listen Candice, I tried to tell you this wasn't going to be easy. Amanda is part of our lives. Look at them," Francine said with a gesture to where the newlyweds were still wrapped up in each other. "Lee loves her. He _really_ loves her. You've got to get that through your thick head and snap out of this ridiculous fantasy you're living in."

"Mommy, are you back?" a small voice called from the kitchen.

"Sweetie, come in here. There is someone I want you to meet," Candice called back to her daughter.

Leah burst through the kitchen door. "Is it Daddy?"

Lee braced himself holding onto Amanda for dear life. While he'd been surprised to see her there, he was grateful for it. He could use some of her strength right now. He wasn't good with children. It had taken a long time to get comfortable being around Phillip and Jamie and they were a lot older than this frilly bundle of energy that just bounded into the room. Amanda put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He squeezed her hand gently in return to let her know how relieved he was that she was there to guide him through this.

Candice met her daughter half way across the room and swept her up into her arms and kissed her. "I missed you!"

"Mommy, you weren't gone that long" she giggled as they rubbed noses.

"Leah, did you remember to get the picture you drew for your daddy?" Francine reminded her.

"Oh yeah I forgot," she said as she looked around the room. "You're my daddy aren't you?" She said as she spied Lee. "I want to go get your picture" Candice let her down and the child ran into the kitchen and returned quickly with the drawing. "Here," she thrust the picture at Lee.

Amanda tugged at Lee's arm to encourage him to get eye level with Leah. He glanced at his wife for a moment reluctant to leave her arms, but when she nodded in encouragement, he released her and bent down to examine the picture. "You know Leah this is a very good picture". Thinking that Lee was probably as clueless as Francine as to what it was a picture of, Amanda set out to rescue him, but he remembered the old snapshot Candice had in her purse and knew what it was. "Let me see, that's your mommy, and that's Francine and that's me," Lee announced to a shocked room as he pointed to each crayoned image. "I'm very glad to meet you, Leah."

An over anxious Leah threw herself into Lee's arms and hugged him and kissed him. "Oh, I love you, Daddy" Lee bristled initially but when Amanda again laid her arm on his shoulder he relaxed and let himself enjoy the child's affection.

"Leah, there is someone else I'd like you to meet" Lee said as he picked up Leah and turned toward Amanda. Amanda shook her head knowing what he was about to do and she thought it was a very bad idea.

"Oh, I already met her, her name is Amanda and she's Auntie Francine's friend."

"Auntie Francine, huh?" Lee mocked as he looked at Francine, who responded with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Well she's much more than just Auntie Francine's friend..." Lee started ignoring Amanda's shaking head. "She's my friend too, my _best _friend."

"You mean, like Mommy and Auntie Francine are best friends?" Leah asked.

"It's a little different," Lee began but was stopped by his wife once again laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Lee..."Amanda said in a warning tone.

"No, Amanda, it's long overdue," Lee said. He glanced briefly at Candice, still angered by her assumption hat she could just waltz back into his life and think that they'd pick up where they left off. He then turned back to the child in his arms and said, "Amanda is my wife."

Candice gasped, Francine flung herself into the closest chair and Amanda's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"So, is she going to live with me and you and Mommy and the puppy" Leah asked in her childish innocence.

Candice quickly came over to retrieve her child, snatching her from Lee's arms, her eyes filling with tears that threatened to flow at any second. "Sweetie, why don't you get your shoes? Mommy and Daddy and Auntie Francine all have to go to where Mommy used to work and you're going to stay with Uncle Jonathan."

"Candice, I could keep her. It would really be no problem" Amanda offered. She wanted to get to know Leah a little better, if she was going to be a part of Lee's life.

"No!" Candice icily responded. Checking the venom in her voice for her daughter's sake, she continued "We've already made the arrangements and I'd hate to disappoint Jonathan. He was looking forward to hanging out with her."

"When do we get to go to Daddy's house?" Leah asked impatiently.

"How about we come back here after we're done at the office?" Lee offered not sure that he was entirely comfortable with the idea of her invading the space he so far, had only shared with Amanda since moving into that apartment the year before anymore than he was with Candice being there. He'd moved there so he could have a fresh start with Amanda once he knew without a doubt that he'd never be with any other woman but her, not wanting their future clouded by remnants of his past.

"Okay, then, Mommy, come help me tie my shoes," Leah said.

Candice left Lee alone in the room with Amanda and Francine.

"Are you insane, Lee?! Did you not see me shaking my head?" Amanda raised her voice at him as she slapped him on the arm.

"What did I do?" A bewildered Lee asked.

"That little girl has been dreaming of her family her whole little life and you just blurt out that I'm your wife. I'm just glad she is too young to understand what's really going on."

"I thought it would be better for her to know what's going on right from the start then to let her get any fantasies going about her mother and me being together getting started. It's obvious that Candy's been filling her head with the idea that we're all going to be one big happy family and I already have a happy family."

"... Lee this girl has lived off the fantasies since she was able to understand what her mother was saying..."

"And that's exactly why it needs to be stopped now before it goes any further. Look, can we finish this in the car on the way to the agency?" He ran a hand through his hair and glanced over at Francine. Lee realized that in blurting out the truth, she was now aware of their secret marriage. "And you keep those loose lips shut" he said pointing his finger toward Francine.

"I'm tired of having friends, I need some chocolate and a good stiff drink," She muttered to herself as she shook her head. "Don't worry. I'll keep everything to myself. No one would believe me anyway."

"We're going to go ahead and leave. You make sure Candice shows up at the agency. I want every test there is run on this woman and I can't wait to hear the story of her miraculous escape." He said as they walked out the door.

"That makes two of us." Francine said as she got up to look for her secret chocolate stash. Just as she was settling down with a box of chocolates, Candice and Leah came back into the room.

"Leah, why don't you go into the kitchen and pick up your crayons and put them away?" Candice told her daughter. She wanted to talk to Francine without her hearing.

"Ok, Mommy." She said as she ran to the kitchen.

"I can't believe this! What kind of a friend are you? You could've told me last night that Lee is married instead of just telling me he was involved!"

"I just found out about it yesterday afternoon myself!"

"What do you mean, you just found out? How could you not know he was married?"

"I'm sorry to burst your little bubble Candice but Lee does not clear his social calendar through me and when the Scarecrow doesn't want someone to know something, they don't know it. They ran off to some little justice of the peace over in the next county and didn't tell anyone. Not even her kids know about it."

"She has kids? Oh, this just gets better and better." She said in frustration.

"Yes, Lee has a family now. The way Amanda tells it, he adores her boys. They're like his own children."

"Of course, _she _would spin it that way," Candice said icily.

"Look, I'm inclined to believe Amanda on this one. I've seen the way that Lee has been so fiercely protective of them over the years, long before he and Amanda were even a couple."

"Exactly how long have they been a couple?"

"To be honest, I don't know for sure," Francine said as she thought back to all the times she caught them in a clinch in the Q Bureau. "At least a year," she said as she remembered their "rehearsing" and her smart-alecky jibe about opening night last May, "Maybe longer." She tried to recall the last time she'd seen Lee on a date with another woman and realized that it had been well over a year since he'd been seen with anyone except Amanda, or had talked about his personal life. "All I know for sure is that he seems like he's finally found the family life he's been looking for his whole life and it really seems that he enjoys his role as stepfather to her kids."

"_Leah_ is his child, not them. I have to make him see that. I assume that they have a father of their own. She's never had a father. She needs him more than they do."

"You're going to have a hard time convincing him of that. He's very attached to Phillip and Jamie." She pointed out. "And to Amanda." she added. "You'll find once you get to know Amanda that she is a stubborn woman and she doesn't take kindly to anyone threatening her family."

"Well, this is _my_ family, we're talking about," Candice said. Amanda may be stubborn, but she could be just as stubborn and after almost five years, she wasn't about to let her or anyone else destroy her plans for building a stable life for her daughter.

"Candice, listen to me very, very carefully," Francine said. "Lee_ has_ a family, a family that he loves very dearly and he won't let you threaten that anymore that Amanda will." She desperately wished that Amanda had already told her husband about her pregnancy. She bit down on her lower lip to prevent herself from just blurting it out to Candice. She'd made a promise to Amanda to keep her secret until she'd had a chance to talk to Lee, but she so badly wanted to see that smug look that came from Candice's deluded self-confidence wiped from her face. She was her friend, but this fantasy world she was living in was only going to hurt her in the long run.

"We'll just see about that," Candice said haughtily.

Francine sighed and shook her head, hoping against hope that Candice wouldn't do something stupid in her fervor to snag Lee for herself that would end up hurting everyone involved. She thought of her young daughter in the other room and worried for her most of all. The poor child had already been through so much and didn't need to go through anymore. "Come on, we'd better get to the agency." She sighed again as it hit her that her arguments now were falling on deaf ears the same way they have years ago when she'd warned her not to get too attached to Lee in the first place. If only she'd listened to her then.


	9. Chapter 9

"I still don't know why you wouldn't let me drive my car?" A vexed Amanda stated as she rode in the passenger seat of her husband's sports car. "I drove to Francine's by myself you know." 

"I just wanted us to show that woman in there, that I'm with you for the long haul." Lee explained as he reached for her hand and squeezed in gently. "I thought if we show a united front, it would be better than letting her think she can just pick up where she left off."

"Hmph."

"You're not still mad at me, are you?"

"Lee, you're dealing with a small child's hopes and dreams, you needed to think a little more before you just announce that I'm your wife."

"Amanda, you can't honestly believe that little girl is mine?"

Amanda looked at him in astonishment. "Did you look at that little girl?"

"Yeah, sure I did. I saw her plain as day," Lee said. He more than saw her. He'd heard her call him Daddy, something he never thought he'd ever hear. While he loved Phillip and Jamie, they had a father of their own. He'd often wondered if Amanda would be up for having more kids, but he'd never quite had the courage to ask her about is since her kids were half-grown and because it wouldn't be feasible with their marriage not being out in the open as it should be. Maybe once they'd told everyone the truth, he'd broach the subject with her.

"No, I mean did you _really_ look at her," Amanda persisted unable to believe that her normally perceptive husband couldn't see what was right in front of his face, what had been so obvious to her within seconds of meeting Leah.

"Of course I did."

"Then how can you honestly believe she's not yours?"

"Because I would never have let that happen," Lee replied firmly.

"That's what all men think. Oh no, it can never happen to me," she said sarcastically as she pulled her hand from his.

"Well, all men may think that but in my case it's true. I'm always careful."

Amanda grinned _Uh-huh Mr. Stetson, you're careful all right. Let's just see what you have to say when you find out where your carefulness has gotten us,_ she thought as she rubbed her stomach.

"What are you grinning at?"

"Leah is your little girl...I'm sure of it."

"Can we not argue about this right now? I know this is not exactly the relaxing day off we had planned, but we have a few minutes away from everyone else so what is it you had to tell me this morning?" Lee was determined not to let this thing with Candice invade his life anymore. Soon they would be at the agency and she would be revealed for the impostor that she was.

"Don't you think we have more important things to worry about right now?"

"Nothing is more important to me than you and your happiness."

"Okay, then, it would make me happy if you would at least admit there is a possibility that Leah is your little girl."

Lee growled. "Amanda, you're being impossible. Okay, if you won't tell me what you wanted to talk about, then I'll start. I think it's time to tell the boys and your mother that we're married."

"Now?" Amanda gaped at him in surprise. How could he even think of revealing all their secrets at a time like this when so much was up in the air.

"What's wrong with now? They are obviously curious. I just think it would be better for us if we tell them before they figure it out on their own."

"What if Leah turns out to be yours?"

"Then we definitely need to tell the boys, I don't want them to think that Leah will change the way I feel about them now that we've really starting to bond."

"Speaking of bonding...How in the world did you know what Leah's picture was?"

"We have our ways." He said with a devilish grin at his wife before turning his eyes back to the road.

"Would you stop that and be serious?"

"Okay, seriously. Candice showed me a worn out snapshot when she came to see me. It was of Francine and Candice and me. Candice said she had been showing it to Leah for years. The agent in me put two and two together and came up with the right answer."

"I'm impressed."

"You seemed pretty worried that Francine would spill the beans about our marriage. Is she really that bad at keeping a secret," Amanda asked worriedly as she started to panic hoping that her own secret wouldn't be revealed too soon.

"In the line of duty, she's a pro...but give her a little too much personal information and... I'm sure she's just dying to come to me and give me all the details of the surprise party you two are throwing together." He smiled, oblivious to the fact that Amanda was turning pale again.

Amanda was starting to feel sick again and this time there was no way to stop it . "Lee, I think you better pull over."

"What's wrong, " Lee then turned and looked at Amanda, noticed her green color and immediately pulled off the road.

Amanda bolted from the car and proceeded to throw up all over some nearby shrubbery.

"Amanda, are you o..." Lee's inquiry was interrupted by the sound of Amanda heaving again. "Oh...Um... " He was unsure what he should do for her and was beginning to feel sick himself. He turned his back on the scene.

When her violent retching had stopped, Amanda said, "In my purse there are some Kleenex and breath mints, would you please go and get them for me." She shakily sat down on the ground and smiled slightly._. I can see I'm going to have a hard time with him in the delivery room_, Amanda thought. Actually throwing up had eased her queasy stomach and she was enjoying the peacefulness of the moment as she glanced at her surroundings. The day had been so unreal that she was thankful to be able to take a minute to center herself. The rain the last week has given the grass and spring flowers a new lease. Summer hadn't yet officially started, but the weather was getting warmer, spring giving way to summer, which would soon turn into fall and by the time winter rolled around, their baby would be here. _The baby_, she thought as she absent-mindedly stroked her stomach while watching her husband fulfilling her request.. _How am I going to tell him about this baby with all that's going on? He's already pushing the stress meter on this Candice thing. How can I add more stress to that?_

"Amanda, are you all right" a concerned Lee asked as he handed Amanda the items she had requested "You looked a million miles away" He sat down on the ground beside his wife, grateful that today was their day off and they weren't in their professional attire.

"Just thinking," she said as she popped a breath mint in her mouth and chewed on it thoughtfully, dabbing her damp eyes with a tissue.

"About what?"

"About what's going to happen when those test results are in and how it's going to affect our family."

"You know you really don't have to come to the agency, I can meet you at the apartment after and then we can go back over to Francine's together."

"I'm fine, really. I want to be with you. I must have just eaten something that was bad. Besides, if I went home, I'd just worry about you anyway. I have a feeling you're going to need me to be there," she reached for his hand and squeezed it affectionately.

He smiled at her, wondering how he had ever found a woman like her. She was sick and she was still thinking more about him than herself. His eyes lit up as a thought occurred to him. "Hey I have an idea, let's swing by the apartment and get our wedding rings. Francine already knows, so we might as well tell Billy."

"Do you really think we should?"

"Even if we decide not to tell him at least we'll have them to wear back to Francine's. I want Candice to know that I married the most incredible woman in the world and I am so proud of her." He gently kissed her cheek and stood up " I'm just glad you didn't get away from me before I realized what I had," He added as he helped her to her feet.

"I don't know, Lee," Amanda said warily. It all seemed like just too much.

"You don't want people to know now? Weren't you just saying last night that we shouldn't live like we do anymore?"

"I know what I said," Amanda said impatiently.

"Then what's the problem," Lee asked thoroughly confused by her change in attitude.

"The problem, Lee?" she said incredulously. "The problem is there is a child out there who's been dreaming her whole life of her father and that should take priority over our own personal desires."

Lee's anger began to flare again at his wife's sheer stubbornness. "Okay, first of all, we don't know for a fact that I'm her father and second, even if she is, that shouldn't change anything between you and me. Why are you all of a sudden so reluctant to stop living in secret?"

"I'm not, but I'm getting tired of you deciding to wait until there's some catastrophe before you own up to your real feelings," Amanda shouted responding to her husband's anger in kind.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Are you kidding me? Look at our history, Lee. You didn't tell me that you loved me until you were on the run and thought that we might never see each other again. You didn't ask me to marry you until you thought we weren't going to make it out of Addi Birol's lair and you didn't even bring up making any concrete wedding plans until you thought Joe might try to steal me away from you. Now this. You weren't the least bit worried about coming clean about our marriage until faced with the fact that you may have a child that you never knew about!"

"Now, Amanda, you know that is not true! The other stuff, yes, but I have hated this mystery marriage since day one. I hated that we nearly missed out on our wedding day because of the damn job, hated that when you were shot, I couldn't come clean with your mother while we watched you fight for your life. I hate every night that we spend apart. I hate going open to that dreary, empty apartment and not being beside you where I should be. How many times have you heard me complain about how much I hate that our marriage is part-time? God, every time you get ready to leave my place, I wish I could just hog-tie you or something to keep you there with me. I even hate hearing how that sounds, _my place_. I'm sick of this my-place-or-yours routine. I've lived too damn much of that in my life! That should have ended the day we said I do. Every time I leave your house, I wish things were different, that you and me and the boys could be a real family like we're supposed to be. I wish they knew that I'm not just some guy that their mother's dating, but their stepfather, and that I'm going to be there for the long haul unlike their worthless father."

"Don't start on Joe again," Amanda said. "He has nothing to do with this."

"No, but right now I feel just like him," he said raking his fingers through his hair in frustration. "I'm just as big a deadbeat dad as he is."

"I thought you were convinced that there was no way that Leah could be yours," Amanda pointed out.

"Okay, I admit that there's a strong possibility that she is," Lee conceded calming a little. "While Candy may have her faults, she was never one to sleep around. On top of that, Leah looks like the perfect mixture of me and her mother, my eyes, her curly blond hair, my dimples, her nose. I...I just didn't want to believe that all this time, I've had a kid out there that I've been neglecting, that I should have been there for protecting from people who might want to hurt her to get to her mother or me."

"Lee, you thought Candice was dead. How could you have possibly known that she wasn't or that she was carrying your child at the time of her disappearance? You're not to blame for not being there for your daughter. If anyone's to blame, it's her mother. She should have come to someone at the agency for protection instead of trying to take all upon herself and she definitely should have told you that you were going to be a father," Amanda reassured him, but at the same time feeling like a hypocrite as she hadn't yet told him that _she_ was carrying his child.

"Yeah, maybe, I don't know. I just know that I can't stand feeling like this, like I let that little girl down," Lee said.

"What would you have done if you'd known Candice was pregnant?" Amanda asked as she nervously picked at her cuticles. "Would you have married her?"

Lee noticed her nervous habit and said, "Stop that," as he took her hands in his. He sighed and then said, "I don't know what I would have done. I was never given the opportunity to find out. As for marriage, I highly doubt it. I never even seriously thought about marriage after Eva until I met you. After all that had happened in my life, I just figured I was just meant to be alone. Besides, getting married for the sake of a child...that...that just seems wrong to me. I mean, look at what happened to you in your first marriage."

"I don't know what you mean," Amanda said evasively.

"Amanda, I'm not stupid. I can count. You and Joe were married in August of '72 and Phillip was born in March of '73. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you were already expecting when you married Joe."

"Yes, but there's a big difference between me and Joe and you and Candice. We were already engaged when we found out that Phillip was on the way. We just got married a little sooner than we planned because of it. We hadn't planned on actually making it official until after Joe had finished law school, but then Phillip took us both by surprise."

"Do you ever wonder if your marriage might have lasted if you hadn't gotten pregnant so soon and gotten married earlier that you planned."

"Sure, I used to wonder about it when it started to hit me that we weren't going to live happily ever after like we planned. I've even wondered if we'd have lasted through Joe's term at law school and if we'd have gotten married at all, but I haven't thought about it in a long time. I look back on it and just try to remember the good times and focus on the fact that even though it didn't work out, we still had two amazing children together I'm thankful for them every day. I wouldn't change that for anything. Besides, if my marriage to Joe hadn't ended, I'd never have dated Dean and needed to take him to the train station that fateful day and you and I would never have met." She paused for a beat as she glanced down at his hands still linked with hers and said, "You know, I think I do wanna' make that stop by the apartment, after all," as she caressed his bare ring finger. "You were right, that...that woman needs to know that you and I are together and that we're staying together."

"Forever," Lee said as he kissed his wife softly.


	10. Chapter 10

Dotty wandered around the house aimlessly, dusting here and there. She walked by the wall calendar in the kitchen and noticed that the 17th was marked in red. She stopped to look at it. 

"Next Wednesday is Lee's birthday. I wonder what Amanda has planned for him. I should find out." She picked up the phone and started dialing. "Amanda King, please...Yes, I'll hold...what do you mean this is her day off?...She left at six o'clock this morning and said she was going to work...Why would she say something like that to me if it weren't true...Of course, I know you're not a mind reader. Sorry to have bothered you." She hung up the phone. "Oh, that girl, I swear! She's going to be the death of me! I just bet I know where she is." She started dialing again.

Lee's phone was ringing as he and Amanda walked into his apartment together. Lee picked it up. "Hello?...Yeah, she's here...Hold on..." He handed the phone to Amanda. "It's your mother."

"Mother? What's going on?" she said wondering why she'd be calling Lee's place and hoping that her ex-husband hadn't yet again shirked his fatherly responsibility when the boys had been so excited about getting to spend two whole weeks with him and their new stepmother. She hoped that he hadn't. While she loved her children dearly, she was immensely thankful that with all that was going on; they were at their father's house. That was one less thing for her to deal with and it would give her and Lee time to cope and she was hopeful that it would also give her time to figure out both how to ease him into his new relationship with his daughter, as well as give him her news. She hoped that those plans hadn't changed. While she always wanted to be there for her boys, she knew that Lee was going to need her to help see him through this.

"You tell me, Amanda," Dotty said sarcastically breaking Amanda's deep train of thought. "I've just found out that my daughter had lied to me yet again."

"What do you mean?"

"I called your office and they said you weren't there. That you weren't even scheduled to work today, so I had a good idea where you'd be."

"Mother, I can explain..."

"There's nothing to explain, Dear. I just wish you would learn to trust me. You're an adult after all. You don't have to hide your private life from me like you're some hormone-driven teenager. I could understand it if you were sixteen, but you're not. If you want to spend some private time with Lee, just tell me the truth. I can handle it. I can hardly blame you. I mean, if I had a cute, charming man like Lee in my life, I'd never want to get out of bed."

"Mother!"Amanda said in exasperation as Lee slipped up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and started nibbling at her neck. Amanda smiled as she leaned back against him thoroughly enjoying the contact and that he knew all her most sensitive spots.

"Well, the reason I called is that I saw that you had Lee's birthday marked in red on the calendar and I wondered what your plans were."

"We don't really have any plans just yet. Would you stop that! You're distracting me." She whispered to Lee. On the other end of the phone, Dotty just tried not to laugh. "What did you have in mind, Mother?"

"Well, I thought we could have a party for him here, possibly on Saturday, have a cookout or something and have Joe bring the boys over and maybe invite some of your friends from work."

Amanda thought about that for a moment, then inadvertently squealed into the phone as her husband's teeth nipped at her earlobe. Trying to compose herself, she said, "I think that's a great idea, Mother. Can we talk about the details later?"

"Sure, Dear. I can tell you're...uh...busy."

"Good-bye, Mother." She hung up the phone. She turned around and nearly crashed into Lee feeling a slight wave of dizziness after turning around so quickly.

"Amanda, are you sure you're feeling okay?" He asked her in concern as he expertly caught her in his arms..

"Yes, Sweetheart, I'm fine. Don't worry," she said with a smile shaking off her moment of dizziness.

"I just hate it when you're sick. I feel so helpless. Maybe it's the agent in me, the need to be in control of the situation.

"No, that need to be in control is just the man in you," she teased. "I remember when Phillip was about two and he was playing with this toy that I didn't know had a sharp edge on it. He cut himself pretty badly and had to have stitches. Joe was great. He ran over, scooped him up and ran him to the emergency room. However this same man who had his son bleeding all over him just weeks before had not a clue what to do when his little boy caught a stomach virus. Men can only handle things that can be fixed by action and not everything works that way. Sometimes things just have to run their course." she smiled to herself as she thought of the course the next seven and a half months would take."

"I just want to be sure that all of this isn't taking its toll on you. I've never seen you like this, looking so weak."

"I'm not weak and I'm not sick. I'm fine, really. Like I said earlier, I think I just ate something that didn't agree with me," she said evasively. She wriggled out of his arms, walked through the bedroom into the bathroom and reached for her toothbrush. He followed closely behind her.

"I promised myself when you were shot on our honeymoon that I'd never let anyone or anything hurt you again."

"Lee you know you can't possible keep that promise. Even if you could keep me safe at work, you can't very well keep me in a plastic bubble away from all the germs in the world. California was not your fault. Besides, this is nothing like that. It's just a little nausea. No big deal. Contrary to what you'd have Candice believe, I am not some super woman. I catch colds and the flu just like you mere mortals and sometimes I might even eat something that I shouldn't have."

"You'd tell me if there was something wrong, right?"

"Of course, I would," she said and felt horribly guilty for not telling him the truth, but now was definitely not the right time. Technically, she hadn't lied to him just now. There was nothing wrong with her. In fact, it felt very right to be carrying her husband's child, but there was a little girl who needed his attention and she didn't want his focus split right now. The baby wasn't due until late January and this was only June, so she still had plenty of time.

"Okay." Lee retreated to the bedroom and left her to brush her teeth. He reached into the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out a strong box and unlocked it. Nestled inside the ring box he had removed and opened were their wedding rings, along with Amanda's engagement ring. They'd been in that box so much that they still hadn't lost that new-looking shine. As he slipped his ring on, he grinned and thought of the expression on everyone's faces as he proudly displayed it for the first time. Remembering how they almost didn't make it to their own wedding because of Nick Grant made him chuckle as he picked up the marriage certificate. He put it back and reached for a packet of pictures. He sat down on the bed and flipped through them, losing himself in the memory of how happy he'd been that day and how beautiful Amanda had looked.

Amanda had finished freshening up and wondered where Lee had disappeared to and why he was so quiet. When she found him in the bedroom, he was still caught up in the memories. She watched him for a moment and then walked to the desk and put her own rings on examining them for a moment. "So, Mr. Stetson, exactly what was it you were dreaming about this morning?"She asked as she wrapped her arms around him from behind.

"Nothing special. Just about this beautiful brown-eyed brunette who fell out of the sky one morning and changed my life forever," he said as he leaned back and kissed her.

"Hmm, and what were you and this brown-eyed goddess up to in this spectacular dream of yours?"

"Allow me to demonstrate, Mrs. Stetson." He said as he pulled her into his lap.

"What kind of demonstration are we talking about here?" she said as their wedding pictures dropped to the floor while her husband wrapped his arms around her kissing her soundly.

"You'll see," he said as he rose with her in his arms and carried her to their bed.

A long while later, Lee and Amanda lay blissfully entwined with one another post-lovemaking. Neither of them wanted to abandon the peacefulness that had come over them after fully exhausting all the passion they felt for one another, but they both knew that they couldn't hide there forever.

"Well, I have to say I love the way you dream." Amanda said playfully after she had finally caught her breath.

"I kind of thought you would," He said with a rakish grin.

"Although we did mess up that bed after I took all that time this morning to make it up so neatly," she teased.

"Are you complaining?"Lee teased. "I didn't seem to notice you protesting too much about messing up the bed a few minutes ago."

"Not a complaint, just an observation. As far as I'm concerned, the bed can stay messed up if it means we get to spend some time together like this," she said contentedly as she lazily ran her fingers across her husband's bare chest.

"Wouldn't that violate your oath to live up the Good Housekeeping guide?"

"It's just a good thing this isn't my house," Amanda said. "Besides, you hate it when I straighten up your place anyway."

"Not so much anymore," He said. "I've begun to think of this place as more our place, than just mine ever since we got married."

"That's a nice thought, but like you pointed out earlier, we've never really had a place that's ours," Amanda said sadly.

"Well, that needs to change."

"Yeah, I know it does," Amanda agreed. _Especially now that we have a baby on the way, _she added to herself. They were definitely going to need a bigger house that would have room for the baby and maybe even a room for little Leah if they could come up with an amicable agreement on how to share time with her. That is, if Candice could get over the idea of trying to steal her husband from her.

"So, what was it your mother wanted?"

"She noticed that I had your birthday marked on the calendar and she wants to do something for you."

"That's nice of her, but don't you already have your plans made?"

"Hey Big Fella, I thought you weren't all that keen on the big office bash anyway. Besides Francine and I have enough to deal with. This will give Mother something to do. She was thinking of a backyard barbecue kind of thing although I still may invite Bert from internal affairs just to liven things up a bit," she teased. In truth, there was no office party, but she couldn't exactly tell him that without revealing the real reason behind her lunch with Francine.

"Just what we need more excitement in our lives," he said dryly as he planted a firm kiss to his wife's lips. "Wait a minute! This is great! Your mother has given us the perfect opportunity."

"Opportunity for what?"

"After the party, when it's just the family we can tell them all the truth about our marriage."

"If we don't chicken out first," Amanda said. There were many times that she'd wanted to tell her mother the truth, especially a month or so ago when she'd found her husband's underwear in her laundry and had promptly teased her about it.

"Well, I for one am tired of living like this. I'm tired of having to sneak around, stealing moments here and there. Like I told you earlier, I'm tired of having a part-time wife."

"I couldn't agree with you more, but it's not going to be easy to just tell them we've been lying to them all this time. We're going to have to tell them about the agency too."

"The agency?"

"Yes. They're going to want to know why we've kept this big a secret from them. The only way to explain it is to tell them the truth about our jobs."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He sighed and pulled her closer. "I love you."

"I love you, too." She kissed him. "Well, as much as I hate to say it, we should probably get dressed and head to the office." Lee groaned.

"Don't remind me. I am not looking forward to this."

"I'll be there, remember? You don't ever have to go through anything alone again. We'll get through this together."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lee and Amanda arrived at the agency to find Billy and Francine huddled in Billy's office. 

"Where's Candice ?" Lee inquired his surprise that she was not being interrogated evident on his face.

"Down in Doc McJohn's office" Francine offered " You guys were taking so long we decided to start without you."

"I'm sorry, Sir, we got a little sidetracked." Amanda said to Billy, glancing at Lee. Billy nodded knowingly and smiled slightly. He was glad to know that this little surprise hadn't changed things between them. Billy winked at Lee.

Lee looked a little flustered and felt the need to explain. "We had to make a few unexpected stops, Amanda seems have some kind of stomach bug... I keep trying to get her to go home," He said with a pointed look at his wife still irritated by her stubbornness.

Francine and Amanda exchanged glances. "Lee, I told you that I would be fine." Amanda interjected.

"Well, at any rate I want to hurry up and get this over with, I have important business to attend to today," Lee said with an affectionate look directed at his wife.

"Amanda, you really don't have to be here you know...This was Francine and Lee's old case. If you're not feeling well..."Billy began.

"Thank you, Sir," Amanda interrupted "but I am Lee's partner now and what affects him affects me."

"I understand," Billy said understanding more that she knew. "Scarecrow, why don't you and Francine head down to the debriefing room? I'd like to speak to Amanda alone for a minute."

"What do you need to talk to her alone for?" Lee demanded not wanting to leave her side as long as Candice was in the building. She was already not feeling well and he didn't want to take the chance that the relentless vixen would do anything else to further upset the woman he loved.

"Seems to me the last time I looked at the pecking order around here I outranked you, Scarecrow and that means I don't have to explain myself to you. Amanda and I will meet you in the debriefing room in a little while."

Lee sighed wondering what his boss was doing, but he knew when Billy had made up his mind about something, there was no use arguing. He knew very well that Billy could be equally as stubborn as Amanda. "Come on, Francine," he gestured toward his friend and the two of them left the room together.

After they'd left, Billy said, "Have a seat, Amanda," as he rose from his seat, walked to the front of his desk and leaned against it as he often did when wanting to have a personal conversation with one of his agents.

"Sir, I really don't know what you could possibly want to speak to me about that you couldn't say in front of Lee and Francine."

"Well, first, I wanted to say congratulations," Billy said with a warm smile.

"I beg your pardon, Sir? Congratulations on what?"Amanda asked worriedly wondering if Francine had spilled the beans to her boss about her pregnancy or if it was simply that he'd noticed the wedding bands they were wearing, but if that were the case, why would he have sent Lee out of the room? Wouldn't he want to congratulate them both?

Billy just smiled at her again and said, "You haven't told Lee the good news yet, have you?"


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: Okay, first of all, I want to say think you to all of my wonderful reviewers, those who read this story years ago on my website and those of you who are just reading it for the first time. I have replied to all the reviewers who were logged into the site to say thank you, but felt it was worth saying again. To my mystery guest reviews who keep begging for more, thank you as well. Here's the next installment. Enjoy!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sir, I'm not quite sure what you're talking about," Amanda hedged as his statement about telling Lee the good news had completely caught her off-guard.

"Amanda, we've worked together for four years now. I've watched you grow and change in that time and watched Lee grow and change under your influence. I'd like to think that you and I are more than just supervisor and subordinate by now. Lee and I have been friends for quite a long time now and I want you to know that I think of you as a friend, too."

"Thank you," Amanda said deeply moved by his statement though she still eyed him warily wondering just how much he knew.

"As a friend, I want you to know that you can tell me anything. With as long as you've been here and as much as we've been through together, you should know by now that whatever you say to me in this office stays in this office," Billy said sincerely. "So, about the good news you have for Lee," he probed looking her squarely in the eye.

"Francine sure doesn't waste any time, does she?"She grumbled lowering her head to escape his gaze. She was going to murder her for spilling the beans to Billy after promising that she wouldn't say anything to anyone.

"Francine didn't tell me anything. She didn't have to. I didn't get to be head of this department by letting little details slip past me. I'm married, myself you know."

"Married?" Amanda choked out as she tried to feign innocence raising her head again and plastering on what she hoped was a clueless expression.

"Yes, married. Let's see. Since about not quite four months ago, the Nick Grant case." When Amanda still stared at him blankly, he said, "Amanda, I know the secrets of presidents and heads of states, where nuclear missile launchers are, and what every counterintelligence agency in the world is doing at any given time. Chasing a paper trail over into the next county was no big deal, not that I didn't have my suspicions before then."

Amanda gave up the pretense of acting as if she didn't know what he was talking about and asked, "Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"I figured you and Lee must have a good reason for hiding it...and when the time was right and you were ready to tell me, you would. Since I saw you both walk in here wearing your wedding rings openly and not trying to hide them, I figured that time had come."

"Yeah, Lee thought...well, and I agreed...that with this whole situation...since Candice doesn't seem to be able to let go of the past. We thought...that...that it would help to show her that we're together...show her what we mean to each other."

Billy nodded in understanding. "I wondered about that. I thought at first that it might be for a different reason, but when I realized that Lee didn't know what I know, that there was something else going on, some other reason behind it. So when _are _you going to tell Lee the good news?"

Amanda fidgeted uncomfortably in the seat. "What good news, Sir?"

"Stop with the sir bit, okay? At the moment, I'm not your boss. I'm just your friend and Lee's. It's Billy, okay. And you know very well what I'm talking about. It's written all over your face."

"No, Billy...I...I...I'm sorry," Amanda stammered nervously.

"Amanda, I'm talking about the fact that you and Lee are going to have a baby." Amanda's eyes flew wide open at that. "Lee Stetson, family man. I like the sound of that," he said with a chuckle.

"I can't possibly tell him right now," Amanda said a pleading tone in her voice hoping that Billy wouldn't be the one to tell him.

"Why not? Don't you think with this thing with Candice going on that he needs to hear some good news right about now?"

"No, that's exactly why I can't tell him. He's under so much stress right now. I can't possibly add more to that."

"Have you ever considered that telling him that you, the woman he loves, is carrying his child would help ease some of that stress? I mean, this is _good_ news, isn't it?" Billy asked a little worriedly. It hadn't occurred to him that Amanda might not be happy about being pregnant, but now he couldn't' help but wonder.

"It was..." she said her voice low as she stared down at the floor again nervously fiddling with her engagement ring. She thought of how happy she'd been, how happy she thought Lee would be until this whole thing started. She took a deep breath and said, "No, I mean, it is...It _is_ good news." She tried to force a smile. "It's just a...a bad time with Candice here with her daughter and all."

"Amanda, I think you're blowing this whole Candice thing way out of proportion.

"Leah is his daughter. I know she is," Amanda said. "I knew it the first time I saw her. Those eyes of hers, they're Lee's. When I first learned that I'm pregnant, I was nervous, but also excited and very, very happy about giving Lee his first child, but...but Candice beat me to the punch."

"That may be, but Lee doesn't love Candice. He never did. He _does_ love you. I see it every time I see you together. Best thing I ever did was pair the two of you up. Don't you think that that means he'll be happy about your news instead of agitated like he is about Candice's?"

"I think you're over-simplifying the situation," Amanda argued.

"No I'm not. I think you're over-complicating it. Leah may be his child, but his home is with you.'

Amanda laughed sardonically and said, "How can that be when we don't have a home together?"

"I don't mean it in the sense of a physical home. I mean, that you belong together. You are what keeps him grounded. He was drowning when you first met him and you were his lifeline. I believe you were _meant_ to be his lifeline, just as he was meant to be yours. You were drowning too."

"No, I...I was fine," Amanda protested weakly.

"Come on, Amanda, I think we both know better. You were far from fine. You were allowing yourself to be suffocated by an unfulfilling relationship that you knew would never go anywhere in an effort to please your mother and to prove to yourself that you could move on after the heartbreak of your divorce. Can you honestly tell yourself that you were happy with the idea of spending your life with Dean Maguire?"

"Wow," Amanda said, amazed by how perceptive Billy was.

"While that relationship wasn't meant to be, I do believe that Dean served a purpose in your life. He was there when you were searching for something to complete l your life and while he wasn't the person who was meant to complete it, he was responsible for leading you to the one who was. Fate brought you to that train station that morning. Have you ever stopped to think about how many things had to fall in line perfectly for Lee to pick you out of the hundreds in that crowd that day? You see Amanda, I believe that we only have one soul mate in this life and you are Lee's and he is yours. You and Lee were meant to be."

Amanda sat there silently for a moment as she pondered Billy's words and thought about how it matched her own thoughts earlier of how her divorce and subsequent relationship with Dean had led to her meeting Lee. "You are a hopeless romantic," she said with an affectionate smile toward her boss.

"Well, in our business it's easy to become a cynic but I've got Jeannie and she does for me what you do for Lee, what the two of you do for each other."

"I guess I don't need to ask how you knew about the baby."

"Not difficult to figure out. You see, Lee's at a disadvantage what with having no real family to speak of, if he had any, he would've been able to figure it out by now too. Being a father of two girls myself, I've been through this same thing twice with Jeannie. I know all the symptoms of pregnancy very well. It also didn't hurt any that one of the rookie agents saw you and Francine at Emelio's yesterday. You passing out there was the talk around the water cooler this morning...that and the way you've been turning green and excusing yourself from meetings recently. Then there's this," Billy said as he reached behind him for a folder on his desk, "The results of your latest physical."

"Doctor Kelford told me he was going to keep that to himself," Amanda said worriedly wondering how many others in the agency might have seen it.

"Relax, Amanda," Billy said soothingly. "I didn't need doctor Kelford to tell me that you were expecting. I figured it out myself about a week ago. That's why I asked him for this and let me assure you that aside from him, I'm the only one who knows what's in it. That's your business and Lee's when you decide to tell people. That is, assuming that you tell Lee that he's going to be a father."

"He already _is_ a father," Amanda said sadly still disappointed that she wasn't going to be the first woman to give him a child of his own. She knew she was being selfish for feeling that way when she already had two children with another man, but she couldn't help the way she felt.

"Amanda..."Billy said in a warning tone.

"Look, what do you want me to say? Lee and I never talked about having kids and he's already feeling awkward because of Leah. He's so gung-ho about revealing our marriage to everyone and that's going to come with its own set of complications when we tell my family. The boys have gotten to trust him and all of that is going to be blown as soon as we tell them that we've been keeping this huge secret from them for months. He's already under enough pressure as it is and this...," she paused as she looked down again, laying a hand on her stomach as if to shield her unborn baby from all the drama. "... This is just going to add more pressure to him, divide his loyalties."

"Amanda, what are you so afraid of? His loyalty is to you. Don't you know that?"

"Maybe it shouldn't be. He has a child with Candice, a beautiful, sweet little girl who's never had her father in her life. She deserves to have that. Take if from a single mom, I know how hard it is for kids to grow up without their dad. I wouldn't purposely inflict that on an innocent child, if I can do something to stop it."

"You sound as if you believe that Lee being a gather to his daughter has to go hand in hand with him being with Candice. Surely, having raised your boys by yourself, you don't really believe that."

"Raising my boys by myself is what makes me think that parents should raise their child together if at all possible."

"That doesn't mean that they have to be a couple to do it," Billy said, "And what about you and your unborn child? Doesn't that child have a right to be raised by both of its parents as well?"

"If I have to, I can handle it by myself, I've been doing it for years with my boys," Amanda said though the thought of is tore her apart. She wanted a family life with Lee more than anything, but not at the expense of a child who had no choice in what happened in her life.

"So, what were you planning on doing? You and Lee are married and you're having a baby. Were you just going to disappear as Candice did and never tell him that you're carrying his child? How could you possibly think of doing that to him after Candice did the same thing? You know that if you did something like that, there's no place you could disappear to for long that he wouldn't' find you."

"No, I'm not thinking of disappearing. I told you I was going to be here to support him for whatever he needs, but I don't want his judgment clouded by that fact that we're having a baby. He needs to be able to think clearly and this news would just muddle things further."

"I think you're making a mistake, Amanda," Billy said with a sigh.

"With all due respect, Sir, it's my choice and I'd appreciate it if you would respect my decision. I can't tell Lee about this baby. Not yet, not until..."

"Until what, Amanda," Billy questioned. "Until he chooses between you and Candice? Is that where you're going with this?"

"Yes," she said finally.

"Let me assure you, Amanda, that there is no choice to be made. Lee loves you. He'd have never married you if he didn't."

"I know that he loves me, but sometimes love just isn't enough to keep two people together. I learned that the hard way," Amanda said bitterly.

"Amanda, you've got to stop making yourself crazy over this. The stress you're putting on yourself isn't good for your unborn baby. If you're not going to think about telling Lee right away, then at least think about that. Don't you owe it to Lee to make sure that his child is healthy?"

"Yeah, you're right. I'm just...I'm just scared."

"You don't have any reason to be," Billy said. "I know Lee and I know that when it comes down to it, he'll always choose you, no matter what."

"I hope you're right," Amanda said as she once again glanced down at her left hand taking in the sight of the sparking diamond and reflecting back on the day that Lee had first placed there, the promise it held, the way they'd kissed and held each other in the office, celebrating starting their future together.

Billy caught where her gaze had gone and gently reached for her hand. "There's no hoping about it, Amanda," He said as he fingered the gold band on her finger. 'This right here says it all. He'd never have put this ring on your finger if he didn't intend for it to stay there."

"I sometimes wonder," Amanda said. "I mean, the whole mystery marriage was his idea to start with...to...to keep my boys safe. I mean, I...I agreed to it, but in the back of my mind, I sometimes wondered if he didn't have another reason behind it. I mean, I'm not glamorous or exotic like the other women he's been with..."

"And that's exactly why you're the perfect woman for him and why he couldn't love anyone else. Those glamorous, exotic women you're talking about were also vain and superficial without a teaspoon of brains. He'd never have been happy with a woman like that who couldn't possibly understand him. He _is_ happy with you. So, is that it? You think that Lee had some ulterior motive for keeping your marriage a secret? So that he could keep you bound to him, but still be free to live his life?" He reflected back to his unplanned conversation with Elisa Danton of a few months ago and how she'd wrongly assumed that if Lee wasn't going public, he was still a free agent and how he'd promptly corrected that assumption.

"Well, now, that you mention it," Amanda said.

"Amanda, come on, you don't honestly believe that, do you?"

"I don't know, I...I'm just so confused. Why did she have to come back now? Why, when we were finally on the brink of really starting our life together? God, I hate her for doing it!"Amanda spit out. "I hate myself for feeling that way. I try to be nice to everyone, but she...the way that she just threw herself at Lee...the way that she looks at him like she wants to devour him whole...the way she dismisses me as if I'm just a fly on the wall. I just...I wish I could use my hand-to-hand training on her and make her see what's what. Does that make me a horrible person?"

Billy laughed and said, "No, that doesn't make you a horrible person. That makes you a normal jealous wife."He patted her hand and said, "Are you sure you're up to this debriefing?"

"I have to be there for Lee's sake," she said with her typical fierce determination.

"Well, just promise me that if things get too intense, you'll excuse yourself. I know from experience how added stress can make pregnancy symptoms worse and I don't want you fainting or losing your lunch in the middle of things. Dr. Smyth will be there and I don't think any of us are ready for him to know your little secret."

"Yes, Sir."

"And Amanda, please consider telling Lee before he hears it somewhere else."

"I'll tell him soon and until then I'll keep him away from the water cooler."


	12. Chapter 12

"So Lee, how are you doing," Francine asked once she and Lee reached the debriefing room.

"Great, just great...This how I always wanted to spend my day off. Taking a deposition from a supposed dead former girlfriend who claims to have my daughter...You know, she has Amanda convinced that Leah is really mine."

"Are you really so sure that she's not?"

"I don't know," Lee said impatiently.

"Come on, Lee, I knew it the second I saw her and so did Amanda," Francine said. "How is Amanda holding up?"

"Why are suddenly so concerned about Amanda?"

"Well, it just might surprise you to find out that I _do_ care. I don't want to see her hurt. Why do you think I tried to warn her about your history back in January?"

"I know how your mind works Francine. If Amanda and I split up then she would probably quit the agency and then you wouldn't have to deal with your little inferiority complex."

"I do not feel inferior to Amanda King...oh, wait, I guess it's Amanda Stetson now isn't it? Besides, I don't want her to quit . I'm used to having her around now and those brownies she makes are simply divine."

"Were you talking about me?" Candice said as she entered the room flanked by two agency guards.

"Do you make brownies?" Lee sneered.

"No, but I am divine," Candice said with a smile. "At least that's what you used to tell me."

"That was in the past," Lee replied icily.

"So can we start this little party?"Candice said.

"We're waiting on Billy and Amanda," Francine told her.

"Why is she going to be here? She has nothing to do with this case," Candice whined.

"She's my partner," Lee said simply.

"But she wasn't then," Candice pointed out with a pout.

"I want her here."

"But I don't and I refuse to say a word while she's in here!" Billy and Amanda entered the room in the middle of her tantrum. "I mean it, Lee. I don't want her here!"

"Is there some problem, Candice" Billy asked.

"I want _her _out of here. I won't have Lee's lover putting her own spin on everything I say"

"Wife" Amanda interjected. Lee glanced at her and then motioned toward Billy "He's known the whole time."

"I'm glad I was yet again the last to know. You'd think I was one of those rookie agents that hang out at the water cooler the way no one trusts me with a secret." Francine commented.

"Wife, lover, flavor of the week. I don't care. I won't start my story until she's gone."

"You better watch what you say about her," an angered Lee waved his finger in Candice's face. "She's a hell of a lot more to me than some flavor of the week! She's my wife! Do you hear me, Candy, she's my wife!"

"Stop calling me that! Stop calling me Candy! You know I always hated that nickname and how it made me feel like I was just another name in one of you little black books!"

"That's all you ever were to me, _Candy_," he said deliberately using the nickname she hated to make his point. "I'm sorry if you thought there was more to it. I once cared about you as a friend, but nothing more! I was never in love with you and I never saw any future with you! The sooner you get that through your thick head and accept that your little picture you've created in your mind of a happy family life complete with a dog and a picket fence is never going to happen, the better off all of us will be! I have that life with a woman that I actually _am_ in love with!"

"Scarecrow, you calm down," Billy warned.

"Hey listen, it's really no big deal. I'll just wait for you in _our _office. When you're done you can bring me a transcript and then we'll go back to Francine's and maybe take everyone out to dinner. How does that sound, Candy," Amanda said taking great pleasure in watching the other woman's face turn bright red at the use of the nickname. She wasn't typically vicious but this woman was getting on her last nerve. "I'll see you as soon as you finish."

"Thank you, Amanda," Lee said giving her a long, lingering kiss as he linked his hands with hers. "You're amazing."

"I'll see you soon," Amanda said as she released his hands and left the room.

After Amanda left and Billy called the transcriptionist in, everyone settled into chairs around the huge table. Everyone that was except for Lee, who settled into the corner of the room leaned up against wall and folded his arms across his chest. The room was cold and impersonal. It was the perfect place for intimidation tactics. While Candice was giving her vitals and rank to the transcriptionist Lee let his mind wander.

He'd been in this room a thousand times. He was the best intimidator that the agency had, but no one could play "good cop" like Amanda. Her innate sense of fairness always took over. She played the role so well that when she did take a hard line with someone it always made him smile. Amanda might seem weak at first glance to someone like Candice but she wasn't going to take much more. Lee knew she was really starting to get under Amanda's skin. He knew because no one could push the buttons that made Amanda angry quicker than he could. It seemed like they spent the first two years that they knew each other arguing over one thing or another. He had learned to recognize that look in her eyes. Pretty soon, Candice was going to get all she could handle from Amanda.

"Sorry I'm late, Kiddies," Dr Smyth said as he breezed into the room.

"What 's he here for? " Lee sighed knowing that if Smyth were involved, this would take twice as long as it needed to.

"This is a big to-do, Scarecrow . Not every day we can team one of the agencies best teams back up, especially if it means bringing one back from the dead. I'm interested to hear where Miss Davenport has been sleeping and who with, that she could stay hidden from those nasty South Americans for so long. Not an easy feat."

"No it wasn't," Candice said.

"You haven't missed much yet, Sir...just personal stats...age...given name..." Francine rambled.

"Thank you I think I know what personal stats consist of, Desmond. So, she just plunked down on your doorstep last night and you bought her story and led her to us. What if she isn't who she says she is. Goldilocks might just have brought the fox to the henhouse.

"I took all the necessary precautions, Sir."

"Can we please get on with this?" Lee said, getting antsier by the minute.

"What's your hurry Scarecrow? The gangs not all here yet. Wouldn't want to start this little soiree without the court jester."

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Surprised you didn't think of it yourself... Is that a little straw I see hanging out of your ears Scarecrow. I ordered a poly. We'll soon know if the prodigal has returned or if she sent Judas in her place."

As if on cue, Pfaff entered the room wheeling the polygraph machine with one hand and carrying an ice cream bar in the other.

"Well it seems the Good Humor man has arrived" Dr. Smyth said.

"Sorry I'm late, had an interesting case from internal affairs this morning. Won't take but a minute to get this thing set up," He wheeled the cart over to where Candice was sitting and in the process of hooking her up, his ice cream dripped on Candice. "Oh , gee, I'm sorry ...Here let me get something to clean that up."

"Don't bother, you clumsy idiot." Candice said disgusted, shaking the ice cream in Pfaff's direction.

"Well, I can already see we don't need this machine. Only the real Candice would get that worked up over a little ice cream."

"Good." She said, staring to undo his work.

"Not so fast." Dr. Smyth said. "Everyone else may be convinced that she's the genuine article, but I'm not."

"Neither am I." Lee said, glaring at Candice. She smiled sweetly, trying to soften his gaze, but he only gave her a look of contempt. "Look, Amanda and I have plans for the day, so can we just get started?"

"So, does that mean the rumors I hear about you and King are true then, Scarecrow?" Smyth asked.

"That depends on what you hear."

"I heard through the grapevine that you traded in your little black book for domestic tranquility."

"I guess that's one way of putting it, but Amanda and I have done our best to keep our personal and our professional lives separate."

Candice snorted clearly annoyed. "Can't we just get this over with. I have a little girl I'd like to get back to."

"Yeah, let's start with the night you disappeared."

"I remember that night vividly. We had been trailing Jonas all week long and we were sure that this was going to be the night he would lead us to whoever was aiding Carrerra in embezzling the funds from the money the government was sending South America to fight the war on Coca Farmers. Not that the government or people down there were thrilled to be getting this money. We all know now that they thought the way to fight it was to curb America's appetite for cocaine. Therefore, it wasn't hard for him to find a sympathetic supporter on the South American side but we also knew that he had to find a chain of people on the American end of the deal to pull off his scheme. When Francine and I followed Jonas that night we split up, I took the back, she covered the front, and we called Lee and Beaman in for backup. Before I knew what happened Jonas had sprung out of a corner and grabbed me from behind. I heard gunfire and saw Beaman go down."

"You didn't check all the nooks and crannies. Not very wise of you I must say" Smyth interjected.

"Lee and I had had a terrible argument that evening and I was also suffering from a tremendous bout of what I would soon find out was morning sickness. I guess I wasn't thinking very clearly."

"Morning sickness ?" Lee asked. Morning sickness? He thought. _Maybe that's what's wrong with Amanda. No, if she were pregnant, she would have told me...Maybe not_. He argued with himself. _Maybe she thinks that would be just one more thing for you to worry about...I bet that's what she wanted to tell me this morning._ He smiled at the thought of Amanda having his baby. Candice mistook his smile as being directed at her.

"Yes, Lee, it's a symptom of pregnancy," Candice said in an attempt to remind him that while he may be married to Amanda, he was still the father of _her_ child. Lee's smile disappeared abruptly.

"Candice, please continue with your story."Billy said, trying to keep world war three from breaking out in the debriefing room.

"He grabbed me and shoved me in this van. Everything happened very fast. Someone wearing a mask knocked Jonas out and hit me with a face full of chloroform. I guess he dragged me out the front of the van just as it was about to explode. When I woke up, I was in an airport holding room in France. In my pocket, there was this note, "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay hidden. Carrerra thinks that you are dead. I saved your life once but I won't do it again. No one was supposed to die and if you are smart, the casualties will end here."

"Do you have any idea who the masked man was?"Billy asked.

"Not a clue. He never spoke."

"Why didn't you just come back to the agency?"

"The first thing I did in France was get checked out by a doctor because long after the effects of the chloroform wore off, I was still feeling sick. Right after I learned that I was pregnant, a package was delivered to my door. In it was another note telling me that if I came out of hiding or tried to do any more digging on this case, my baby would never be born. In the package, were also a fake ID and credit cards. I knew whoever was the mastermind behind my disappearance was deadly serious. He had enough connections in our government to make me disappear. There was no way to guarantee I could make it safely home. I wasn't about to risk my baby. I used the fake ID's and credit cards long enough to get on my feet. I knew that as long as he was footing the bill for everything, he was able to track my every move. I eventually got a job and saved enough money to get out from under his nose. It wasn't easy though. I had to move around a lot. I became very paranoid.. The only thing that helped me get through that was knowing that Leah needed me and the dream that I would someday be able to return home to the life...and love... I left behind "She looked at Lee adoringly.

Lee only glared at her and said, "I suppose you have a list of addresses and contacts that can confirm your story?"

"Of course. I've kept very careful records of everything. When I came back to DC, few days ago, I rented a safety deposit box to keep it all in until I was sure I could be brought back inside."

"Well, I guess this gives us enough information to get started," Billy said.

"Desmond, I assume she'll be staying with you..." Dr. Smyth said."...Or will she be at your place, Scarecrow?" When Lee simply glared at him, he said, "I guess not. Your not-so-blushing bride wouldn't' approve of that, I suppose."

"Sir, I've offered to let both Candice and Leah stay at my apartment," Francine interjected as was fed up with the arguments today and sensed Lee was about to start one with Dr. Smyth.

"Miss Davenport, if you don't mind I'd like for you to wait outside. We need to wrap some things up before I can release you tonight. It shouldn't take too long and then Desmond can take you home. I realize that this is all very difficult for you."

"You have no idea" Candice lamented gazing at Lee longingly.

"Not so fast," Lee said who's mostly remained silent through the entire session. "I have a few questions of my own. Aside, from that, I'm not about to let you leave this building until those lab results come back." He glared challengingly at Dr. Smyth as if daring him to contradict him.

Dr. Smyth simply held up his hands in surrender and said, "By all means, Scarecrow."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jonathan Stone stood in the Georgetown foyer of the agency, with Leah holding his hand. Mrs. Marston looked at him. 

"Can I help you" she asked.

"Yes, I need to see Candice Davenport." He replied.

"She's in a meeting right now along with Mr. Stetson and Miss Desmond and I'm under strict orders that they are not to be disturbed."

"Well, how about Amanda?" He asked, not knowing what to do.

"I can call and ask her." She picked up the phone and dialed the Q Bureau. She spent just a minute talking to Amanda and she was down the stairs in an instant looking at Jonathan.

"What's going on? Hello, Leah." The child's bright eyes beamed with recognition.

"I 'member you, you're the nice lady who is my auntie's best friend and my daddy's wife."

"That's right, Sweetie. Have you had a good time with Jonathan today" Amanda inquired.

The little girl pulled on Amanda's arm and encouraged her to bend down so she could whisper in her ear. "He really doesn't have very many things for a little girl to play with...and his house is really messy but he did let me eat lots of chocolate."

"I bet that's your Auntie Francine's secret stash," Amanda whispered conspiratorially to Leah knowing Francine's secret love of chocolate, especially when she was scared or stressed out.

"Oh no..She won't be mad at me will she?" Leah asked self-consciously.

"Sweetheart, Francine could never be mad at you. Besides I won't tell anyone if you don't." Amanda whispered back. Amanda stroked the little girl's hair as she turned to Jonathan.

"So, what's up?"

"Francine called and said that they were ordering a paternity test on Leah to determine if she's actually Lee's child. I was told to bring her here but I don't have any clue where that is."

Just as Amanda was about to offer to take him there, Efraim Beaman stepped out of the elevator."Efraim, are you busy?" she asked. She was torn. Part of her really wanted to go with Leah. Having tests run might be traumatic for her. On the other hand, if she went it would be sure to ruffle Candice's feathers and she didn't need that. She also didn't really want to quit researching past files for info about Candice. Besides, she reasoned Leah had been with Jonathan all afternoon while she barely knew her.

"Not really. Why?"

"Could you show Jonathan to the lab. He needs to take Candice's little girl there."

"Candice?" he asked a little startled.

"Yes. Candice Davenport. Do you remember her?"

"Yes,...It's just that I...I thought she was dead." He stammered. _Damn! What's she doing back here? _he thought.

"So, can you take them down to the lab?"

"Sure. No problem." _It'll give me the opportunity to get some info about Candice._

"Great! Thanks, Efraim. I'm in the middle of doing some research on an old case and I didn't want to leave it. Leah, I have some ice cream in the freezer upstairs in my office. After you're done, have your uncle Jonathan bring you up to your daddy's office and we'll make you the best ice cream sundae you've ever had."

"With chocolate sprinkles and everything?"

"Anything you want. Efraim, take good care of them, please," Amanda said.

"Yeah," He said, distracted. He had a million different thoughts running through his head. First on his agenda was to find out how long Candice had been in town and what she'd told Francine.


	13. Chapter 13

Candice left the others in the debriefing room to review her testimony. She had much more important matters to attend to. The first order of business was to ditch the security escort that had been assigned to her. She walked toward the elevator. 

"Excuse me Ma'am, I'm not supposed to let you leave the floor," He said halting her with an arm in front of the elevator doors.

"Look, it's been a long day. I need to go outside for a breath of fresh air and a cigarette," Candice said impatiently.

"I'm sorry. I have my orders."

"Then can you at least take me to Scarecrow's office? I won't leave the building, I swear. I really need a break and he said his partner, Mrs. King, I believe, would be more than willing to take care of me."

"Let me just check with Mr. Stetson."

Candice knew Lee would never approve. "They're so busy in there. I really wouldn't bother them. "Why don't you call Mrs. King and clear it with her?" _We'll just see what this woman Lee thinks he's in love with is made of,_ she thought to herself.

The security guard nodded, turned and picked up a red phone off the wall behind him "Q Bureau please."

In a matter of seconds, Amanda had cleared the way for Candice to invade her office.

As the security guard walked Candice to the Q Bureau, she planned her attack. O_bviously, this isn't going to be easy. She seems to have some kind of inexplicable hold on him. Maybe it's her kids. That will change when the test results come back and Lee can't deny that Leah's his anymore. She seemed so weak this morning, so unlike what Lee needs. The women he gets involved with are usually so strong and independent. Well, Amanda King, it's time you met your match.. I will have Lee. You can count on that, _she thought as they reached the door of Amanda's office.

"Here you go, Mrs. King. If she gives you any trouble, just give me a call."

"I'm sure everything will be fine, Jerry, Thank you," Amanda said with a smile that belied her real feelings as she'd just been sitting at her desk reviewing the lab reports confirming that Candice was indeed who she said she was and that Leah was Lee's daughter.

"By the way, my wife wanted me to thank you for that cake recipe. It was the hit of the PTA bazaar."

"No problem, I was glad I could help. Poppyseed cakes are my specialty. I don't get much time for baking anymore though. I seem to spend all my time here or out in the field."

"I hear that. Seems like they own us around here sometimes, doesn't it? I better get back downstairs," Jerry said as he pointed to the door.

"Thank you, Jerry and tell your little boy good luck on his first aid badge for me."

"Will do, Mrs. King," he said as he left.

Candice could not believe the conversation that just took place. This was the hub of the intelligence community and there they stood talking about poppyseed cakes PTAs and first-aid badges. _This is going to be easier than I thought_, Candice smirked.

"Hello , Candice. Would you like to sit down? There are some cold cuts in the refrigerator if you'd like a sandwich and I just made a fresh pot of coffee. I know we got off to a rocky start this morning and I'd like to apologize. It's just that you caught all of us..."

"Oh, stop with the happy hostess routine!"Candice sneered.

_Yep, this is definitely Francine's best friend,_ Amanda thought, _but she has had a terrible morning and suffered a major blow, _she argued with herself and tried to remember her manners and not let the woman rattle her, tried to think about how she would feel if their positions were reversed."It's not a routine. This is just me."

"Really?" Candice snorted.

"Look, I don't want to be your enemy. You're the mother of my husband's child. That means that you're going to be part of our lives, just like my ex-husband is because of our boys, so we might as well try to get along."

"You're not going to be around long enough to make it worth my effort."

"Oho, you think so? Well, I have news for you! I'm not just going to step aside so that you can march in here and make a play for my husband!" Amanda bit her lip in frustration at the harshness of her own words. This was exactly what she didn't want to do. She took a deep breath to collect herself and said in a calmer tone, "Look Candice, I know you've had a terrible shock. You expected to come back and pick up where you left off with Lee but this is the real world and sometimes things change. People change too. They aren't always what we want them to be."

"Not Lee, he's just upset with me because I wasn't able to contact him for so long. Once he realizes that I am who I say I am and Leah is his, he'll get over it and realize that the three of us should be a family, then it's all over with for you and your boys."

Waves of nausea started to roll over Amanda again. She knew she didn't have time to respond to Candice's last attack. "Excuse me." She said as she quickly retreated from her office to the nearest restroom.

Candice followed, she was moving in for the kill and there was no way Amanda was going to escape. She smiled gleefully as she thought about just how weak her supposed opponent was. As she walked in, she found Amanda with her head over the toilet.

"My, my, my," she said snootily. "What's the matter, is the pressure getting to you? Can't you handle things on your own without Lee holding your hand?" Candice laughed at her. "Now, we'll see who Lee wants to be with."

"Candice, please go back to the office. I'll be all right in just a minute," Amanda gasped as her stomach continued to do somersaults. When it subsided for a moment, she glanced and Candice and realized how much she pitied her. Child or no child, she knew that Lee would never leave her for a woman that he could barely tolerate. She'd seen the look of disdain on his face when she'd had her little fit in the debriefing room, had seen how he'd jumped to her defense and knew without a doubt that all the fears she'd expressed in Billy's office were unfounded. Lee loved her and only her.

"I'm not going anywhere," Candice said with a sneer. She had the woman right where she wanted her and intended to take full advantage of it.

"What do you want that can't wait another five minutes?" Amanda asked her as she once again bent over the toilet her roiling stomach not giving her the peace she needed.

"All I want is Lee. I've waited for almost five years and I don't intend to wait another minute. Why don't you just give up now? This little display here clearly shows that you know you've lost and you know it. I _will_ have him back."

Amanda finally feeling as if her stomach had calmed enough, stood up slowly, bracing herself against the wall with one hand, the other protectively covering her abdomen. "I hardly think so, Candice."

"All he'll be thinking about now is me and how our relationship could have continued if it hadn't been so rudely cut short."

"You think he's thinking about you, do you?"Amanda said her eyes narrowing.

"I know he is. Those lab results are conclusive. I'm the mother of his child and that's something that will never change."

"I'm sure you're right, Candice," Amanda said sarcastically, her voice rising. She'd had more than enough. "I'm sure he was thinking of nothing but you when he was making love to me an hour ago."

"What?" Candice said, stunned.

"That's right, Candice. Why do you think we were running late?" Amanda said with a smug look on her face. _Take that!_ she thought. Candice paled, then pulled herself together. She was determined not to let Amanda see that she'd gotten to her. "That's also what we were doing this morning when you so rudely barged into his apartment this morning. I thought that would have been obvious when we were both wearing nothing but our robes."

Candice's face turned red as she recalled their early morning meeting at Lee's apartment and how she'd felt as seeing them like that. "That may be, but he'll come running back to me soon enough."

"I think that's Lee's decision to make."

"I think the decision has already been made for him. You see, I have something that is irresistible to Lee. His child. You and I both know he's always wanted to be part of a family and I can give him that."

"Lee doesn't need you for that. He already _has_ a family." Amanda pointed out coolly as she lightly stroked her abdomen.

"Oh, yes, I know. You and your precious boys, but how long do you think he'll be happy with that, knowing that they're not really his when Leah is?"

"Being there at conception is not what makes someone a parent. He loves Phillip and Jamie."

"Keep telling yourself that, Dear, but Leah is his own flesh and blood and that _will _make a difference."

"No, it won't. Lee is devoted to me and to my children."

"For now, but he'll soon grow tired of that. Especially when he realizes how truly pathetic you are. He'll leave you and your brats behind. Lee just wasn't cut out for the PTA and poppyseed cakes. He'll soon be bored and realize that Leah and I can give him the life he always dreamed of."

Candice's last barb was the final straw that pushed Amanda over the edge. Attacking her was one thing. Attacking her boys was another. She advanced toward Candice. "First of all, my boys are _not_ brats. They are good, decent boys who love their family. They care about Lee and they look up to him. He's a good influence on them, and it seems to me that you're the one who is pathetic. I tried to be nice to you but you just keep on pushing. " Amanda yelled as her hormones kicked in "Lee is never going to leave me, he loves me. You need to wake up. If Lee had loved you he would have married you years ago." Amanda started feeling lightheaded from the surge of hormones and had to brace herself against the wall again and will herself not to pass out.

"Just look at you," Candice sneered. "I'm amazed that you ever became an agent. You can't even handle confrontation. You are so weak! You're pathetic!" Amanda had finally had enough of Candice's attitude.

"I'm not weak or pathetic, it's called morning sickness. I'm having Lee's baby."Amanda whispered trying to use what little energy she had left to remain conscious as the room began to spin. "You're a mother, aren't you? I'm sure you must remember what it was like when you were pregnant."

Candice stood dumbfounded. She felt like Amanda had slapped her."You're what?!"

"You heard me. I'm pregnant," Amanda said with smug satisfaction at seeing the horrified expression on the other woman's face.. "You're not so sure of yourself now, are you? Did you think you were the only woman in the world capable of giving Lee a child?"

"I...I...I..." She stammered. She couldn't think of anything to say. She looked utterly defeated.

"I see you've run out of clever things to say now," Amanda said in triumph.

_No_, Candice thought. _She's just saying this to get to me. It can't be true."_Not at all. It just surprises me how low some people will sink. I know what your little game is. You're telling me this, so that I'll run and tell Lee that you've been keeping this secret from him, knowing that he'll be so thrilled about the news that he'll overlook the fact that you didn't tell him yourself, but, you see, I'm not going to fall for that. I don't believe you're pregnant. I think you just thought of that on the spur of the moment because you know you're going to lose Lee to me. You _are_ going to lose him and that's a fact!"

Amanda starting to feel her strength returning, once again pushed herself away from the wall and said, "You wanna' talk about facts? How's this one? _I'm_ the one he married. _I 'm_ the one he gave his name to. That's a fact! Did he ever ask you to marry him? No! He asked me.

"No, but he would have when he found out..."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Realization dawned on Amanda. "You've been lying to him ever since you got back. You already knew you were pregnant before the explosion. In fact, I'm starting to think that you got pregnant on purpose to trap him."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Candice denied.

"I think I do. Francine told me how Lee was getting tired of you in the end and the non-stop fighting that you were doing."

"No, he loved me. I was special to him at one time and I will be again. He just needed a little more time to realize that."

"You were special, huh? Not special enough to marry. Do you know how many women I've already met that said the same thing about Lee Stetson? Dozens! Including your best friend downstairs!"

"What does Francine have to do with this?" She couldn't possibly mean what Candice thought she meant.

"I think you better ask Francine for the details."Amanda realized that she had put not just her foot, but her entire leg in her mouth in her desperation to deflect this conversation to someone else. _Francine is going to kill me._

Candice was stunned. _Francine had an affair with Lee?_ She thought. _No. That's not possible. She wouldn't have done that to me._ "You're lying. Francine would never have had an affair with a man she knew I was in love with. She's my friend. I don't believe you. You're just trying to hurt me."

"I'm not trying to hurt you. I just think someone needs to snap you out of the fantasy world you're living in. Did you honestly think you could come back after five years and expect everything to be the same? Did you expect Lee to be sitting around pining for you when he never felt that much for you to begin with? Come on, Candice, be realistic, if you felt you had to resort to getting pregnant to keep him, what does that really say about what kind of relationship you had with him?"

Candice, still thrown by the idea that her best friend had betrayed her skated past Amanda's last comment and said, "No. It's not possible. Francine loves Jonathan. She would never have cheated on him."

"Francine had a lot of things happen to her that year."

"I don't believe any of this. You're a liar."

"I think you better ask Francine."

"Believe me, I will." Candice stormed out of the restroom tears of anger and frustration streaming down her face.

"They are going to kill me" Amanda moaned "Why couldn't you just keep your big mouth shut, you have never known when to be quiet...You've always been a motor-mouth...even when you were at school..." Her lecture to herself was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Mrs King , are you all right?" Leatherneck's voice came through the door.

Amanda opened the door and smiled "I'm fine, thank you for asking. " Amanda looked up and down the hall. "Did you happen to see which way the other lady went."

"Long blonde-haired babe?"

"That would be her." Amanda cringed at the description.

"Went flying down the stairs like a bat out of hell. Mrs Marston tried to stop her.

"Thanks Leatherneck, I've got to run. Leave whatever it is you've got for me on my desk. Great! Now, not only am I going to have Lee and Francine to deal with, but the agency too."


	14. Chapter 14

Amanda was in the Q Bureau, pacing and worrying. _That's it I'm going to lose my job at the agency. How could I be so stupid? Why can't I learn to keep my big mouth shut? Francine and Lee are going to kill me. What if Francine is so angry that she decides to let Lee in on my secret?_ She threw herself in to her chair in frustration. "Boy when I foul things up, I certainly do a thorough job of it. I can't believe I let my personal feelings get in the way so much that I just let Candice walk out that door. Maybe Candice was right. I'm not a good enough agent. I should be more professional." Lee walked in and interrupted her tirade just as Amanda dropped her head on to the desk. 

"Hi," He said dropping a thick folder on her desk to get her attention hoping that she wasn't sick again. "Here's the transcript of Candice's debriefing."

"Thanks." she mumbled her head still down on the desk.

"Where's Candice?"

"Well, you know that is actually a pretty interesting story," she said as she lifted her head and put on her best fake smile.

"Why do the things I never want to hear always start out with you telling me an interesting story?"Lee said with an arched eyebrow.

"I just want you to know all the details before I tell you what happened."

"Amanda, you're hiding something from me, aren't you?

"Me? Hiding something?"

"Uh-huh. I knew it. The typical Amanda King-answer-a-question-with-a-question-routine so you can try to get out of telling me what's going on. Well, it's not going to work this time. I want to know what happened." Lee sat on the edge of her desk and gave her a pointed look.

"Well, she came up here and we got into a big argument, then she ...Well I believe the phase Leatherneck used was flew out of here like a bat out of hell."

"Amanda! What the hell happened? You know she was under strict surveillance until we put some of these pieces together."

"She was a little upset because..." she hesitated.

"Because...?" He said, encouraging her to continue.

"Lee, you know she's the meanest person I ever met. I used to think Francine was nasty, but she has nothing on Candice. You know it's no wonder they were friends. I really can't understand what you ever saw in her."

"Enough, Amanda," Lee said interrupting her ramble. "I need to know what happened and I need to know now. She shouldn't be out there running the streets doing god knows what. Just tell me."

Amanda let her face fall forward into her hands. She couldn't look at Lee. "I...I told her about your fling with Francine."

"You did what?! Amanda, I can't believe you would do something like that!"

"It's not like I planned on it. I was angry and it just sort of came out. She was so sure of herself, so convinced that she was the only woman you could possibly want, and I just wanted to burst her bubble just like the way she burst mine when she showed up at your door this morning. Besides that she called the boys brats and then my maternal instinct kicked in and well, it just sort of happened before I realized what I was saying."

"So you just left a woman who supposedly came back from the grave who knows all the operations of this agency free to roam the streets before we knew which side she was playing for?"

"What was I supposed to do, hold her at gunpoint?" She wondered now if she should have done just that. That would have shown the selfish bitch that she wasn't weak. "I was trying to be nice and give her the benefit of the doubt, after all, she is the mother of your child but no, she would have no part of it. She just kept coming and she called me pathetic and weak and she kept telling me how she was going to steal you from me and that I should just give up fighting for you and..."

"Okay, first of all, you don't have anything to give up because you don't have to fight for me. You see this?" He said as he held up his left hand and pointed to the gold band on it with his right. "This means that you've got me. I'm yours and only yours.. You got me?" Amanda nodded with a weak smile. "Second, she _might _be the mother of my child."

"No, she _is_ the mother of your child." Amanda corrected as she handed him a folder from the pile on her desk. "The test results came up from the lab while you were downstairs. Candice is the real thing and Leah _is_ your daughter."

Lee stood in stunned silence. How could this be happening? He and Amanda were just starting to build a life together and preparing to stop hiding. Why did Candice have to come back? Now, everything was going to go to hell.

"Lee, say something." Amanda said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"What do you want me to say Amanda? How am I supposed to react, finding out I suddenly have a child I didn't know about? Am I supposed to jump for joy? Leah is a sweet little girl, but I don't know her. Now since Candice has flown the coop, I may never get to know her. She may just decide to run off with Leah and we may never find her again."

"Hold on a minute. Candice is not going anywhere. For one thing, she left _without _Leah. She's still downstairs with Jonathan and Efraim. For another, she is still convinced she can have you back. That all she has to do is snap her little fingers and you'll be panting after her like a dog. I know it's my fault that she ran off, but we'll find her and then you'll get your chance to get to know your little girl."

Lee began pacing relentlessly once again raking his fingers through his hair."Well, what if I don't want to get to know her, huh?...Our lives were just starting to come together and now she shows up and totally screws everything up. I mean, so what if we share DNA? Does that mean we're instantly supposed to bond? I mean, look at Joe. Look how he's struggling with the boys because of how much he's been away from them. I know them better than he does and they're not even mine. So who's to say that I have to suddenly be all gushy about this little girl that I didn't even know existed two days ago?"

"Lee, you know you don't really mean that. You didn't know the boys either, but you tried to get to know them because of me. Leah is you own flesh and blood. Doesn't she deserve the same consideration?"

Lee nodded and ran his fingers through his hair again in frustration."You're right. I don't know what I'm saying. Of course, I want to get to know my kid. My kid, wow. I never in a million thought that I would ever be a father. God, I don't have the first damn clue how to be a father."

"Sure, you do. You've been practicing on Phillip and Jamie for almost a year now and even before then, you were doing things for them that a father would do. Look at what you did for their birthdays before you ever met them, how you've protected them for years. You even have your own nicknames for each of them. Those are very fatherly things."

"I guess," he said skeptically. "You know, when we were talking about our wedding plans and I had all this big dreams about getting a bigger house, talking about my kids having horses, I wasn't just talking about the boys. I thought that maybe someday, you and I might have a kid together. You're such a great mom and I...I...if I could have picked anyone to be the mother of my children, I'd want it to be you. I'm sorry that you're not." He thought again about how sick she'd been getting lately and wondered again if she was pregnant and hadn't told him yet, just passing it off as a bout with food poisoning. He wanted to ask her, but just as he was about to, he thought of Candice's story about how she was pregnant and didn't know it. Maybe the same thing was going on with Amanda. Maybe she really did think that just ate something that disagreed with her, but was actually pregnant and didn't know it. No, he thought he'd better not risk it. He didn't want to argue with her about something that may only be wishful thinking on his part.

"Lee, you have nothing to be sorry for."

"No, I do. I screwed up somewhere with Candice. I have been racking my brain ever since she told me about Leah trying to figure out how and I just can't come up with anything, with _how_ it happened."

"Do you really need an education on how these things happen?" Amanda quipped in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Lee couldn't help but laugh. "You know what I mean. All these years, when I was single, I always tried to take every precaution for that very reason. I thought..." He paused and looked at her wondering once again if the reason that she was getting sick all over the place is that she was carrying his child.

"You thought what?"

"I thought that you were the only one in my life that I'd ever let my guard down with, I know there have been a couple of times that we were so wrapped up in each other since we spend so much time apart that we got a little reckless."

"Yes, there have been," Amanda conceded.

"The thing is, with you, I wouldn't mind it so much. If you got pregnant, that would make me happier than you could ever know, but instead it's this crazy woman!"Lee shouted.

"It doesn't change the fact that Leah is your daughter and that she's going to need her father, especially given the fact that her mother's a crazy woman," she said with a slight chuckle. "She needs at least one sane parent."

Lee chuckled himself and said, "Yeah, I know, but the first thing to do is to figure out where her mother went and try to get this whole thing straightened out."

Francine entered the room with Leah in her arms. "What's going on? I could hear Lee yelling as we got off the elevator."

"You're not mad, are you, Daddy?"Lee softened at hearing somebody call him Daddy and knowing now that it was true.

"It's ok, Leah." Amanda said. "We were just talking."

"Where's Candice? Leah was just coming out of the lab as I was coming up so I thought I'd save Efraim the trip."

"Do you want to tell he or should I?" Lee queried.

"Why don't you? I promised this little girl a hot fudge sundae." Amanda in no way wanted to be the one to tell Francine why Candice had left.

"Leah, I want you to stay here with Amanda. Your Auntie Francine and I have some grown up business to take care of . In fact, I don't know how long it's going to take so I'm going to have Amanda take you home with her for a little while."

"Lee, I don't have my car. It's still at Francine's."

"I'll see if Jonathan will run you by Francine's place to get your car. We'll finish our conversation later. Francine, come out into the hall. There is something you need to know and you may as well know now."

Leah hugged Lee's leg and said, "Bye, Daddy."

Lee smiled down at her, patted her head and said, "We'll see you later," as he and Francine stepped out into the hall.

"Hey Leah, come on let's see what's in the freezer over here," Amanda said as she rose from her chair and took her stepdaughter by the hand. "So do you like lots of sprinkles?" she asked her as she pulled a carton of ice cream from the freezer compartment of the small refrigerator in the corner of the room.

"Yes, please," Leah said with an exuberant smile.

Amanda smiled at the little girl as she began to prepare her sundae having trouble reconciling the fact that this sweet little girl could have been mothered by such a vile witch as Candice Davenport. _Stop it, Amanda, _she scolded herself. Leah was very polite and well-mannered ,which meant that Candice must have done something right as a mother and she'd protected her and kept her safe for years even when her own life was in danger. "Here you go" Amanda said as she led Leah over to Lee's desk with her sundae. "Here, why don't you sit down at your daddy's desk and enjoy your ice cream. I have a little work to do over here at my own desk." She watched with a warm smile as the little girl dug into her sundae with gusto only to have the pleasantness of the moment cut through by Francine's shriek from the hallway.

"SHE DID WHAT!" Francine shouted shrilly.

"Auntie Francine sounds mad. Is it because I ate some of her chocolates?"

"Oh, no, Sweetheart, she's not mad at you. She's mad at me."

"But why? You're such a nice lady."

"Well, I did something I shouldn't have done and..." The door flew open before she could finish her statement.

"How could you?" Francine demanded.

"Francine, let me explain..."

"Explain what? How could you be so stupid and insensitive? Of all the hair-brained, idiotic things that you've done since you came to the agency I believe this one takes the cake. You had no right to do what you did!"

"Easy, Francine," Lee said, jumping to defend his wife. Francine turned on Lee.

"Why should I be? You even said yourself that she shouldn't have done what she did."

"Look, she made a mistake. Give her a break! She doesn't deserve this kind of treatment."

"Give her a break? What kind of a break did she give us when she told Candice about our..." Francine hesitated as she looked at the child seated at Amanda's desk."...relationship."

"Well, I think I yelled at her more than enough for both of us. She doesn't need you making her feel worse."

"Look," Amanda jumped in rising from her desk. "Why don't you both just drop it? I know I shouldn't have done what I did but I did and it's over with and now we have to deal with it. I am not going to spend the rest of my day off justifying my actions to the two of you. It's done and I can't take it back now. I made a mistake but it's not like either one of you have never made a mistake. As I recall when I first came to the agency there was a little matter of Francine and cooking lessons and Lee, you just about traded an innocent, brilliant man to the Russians. Now are we going to stand here all day and argue over who's made the most bone-headed mistakes or are we going to start looking for Candice?"

All three heads turned toward Amanda's desk as they heard a soft muffled cry. Embarrassed for having her little outburst in front of the small child, Amanda started over to try to console her, but Lee stopped her. He was going to have to get used to being a father to this little girl sooner or later. He sighed and walked over to his daughter, kneeling beside his desk to make eye contact with her.

"Hey now, what are those tears for?"He asked as her took her tiny hands in his.

"I want my mommy and nobody knows where she is...and everybody is mad at everybody and it's all my fault 'cause I ate Auntie Francine's chocolates."

Lee swept Leah up in his arms "Come here, Princess, no one is mad at you and especially not for eating chocolate. Besides that, I have a pretty good hunch where your mommy is and I'm going to go and get her and bring her over to Amanda's to you. Aunt Francine is going to go back to her apartment just in case your mommy went there and whoever finds your mommy first will call everybody else and then we'll all go out and get a pizza. How does that sound?" He reached for a tissue from the box that Amanda kept on her desk and dabbed his daughter's eyes giving her a warm smile.

"I like pizza with lots of 'roni. Can we go see a movie too? Mommy and I always go see a movie when we eat pizza."

"Whatever you want" Leah hugged him around the neck. "Feel better?" Leah nodded her head enthusiastically. "Good now finish your ice cream and Aunt Francine and I will see you later." He set her back down in his desk chair and kissed the top of her head before turning to Francine and saying, "If you're going back to your place, can you take Amanda with you to get her car? I want her to take Leah back to her house until we find Candice."

"Are you sure that's a good idea," Francine asked skeptically, sure that Candice would be furious at the idea of leaving Leah in Amanda's care.

"You have a better idea? Amanda's a good mother. You know that she'll take good care of her. Besides, if she didn't go back to your place, I may need your help tracking her down. You and I are the only ones who know how she thinks, where she might go."

"Yeah, you're right," Francine said knowing that he was, but still dreading Candice's reaction when they did find her.


	15. Chapter 15

At Rock Creek Park, Lee spotted Candice standing on the bridge overlooking the water. She was leaning over the rail and appeared to be talking to herself. As he stood silently observing her, he realized she was really talking more to him than to herself as he heard his own name on her lips. 

"Lee, I don't know what you want me to do. I spent years dreaming of the day when it was safe for me to bring Leah to you. I just knew that you'd take me into those strong arms of your and never let me go again. Worse than that, I let Leah believe that we were all going to be a family." she gingerly stroked the worn photo that she had clung to in all of her years of hiding. "I really thought that giving you Leah was what we both needed. I loved you so much and I wanted to give you the roots you had always longed for. Then I come back only to find that someone else beat me to the punch." As the breeze off the lake blew, it swept Candice's long blonde hair back from her face Lee noticed the tears that were slipping down her face."I was a fool to think that you missed me. I guess I just missed you enough for both of us. Francine was right I was just the fling of the week to you and nothing more. No wonder we could never get through a week without a fight. We wanted such different things. You were my everything." Annoyed with herself for letting her emotions get the best of her she hastily wiped the tears from her face. "How could I be so stupid? I never imagined you'd fall in love with someone else. Francine always told me I was too much of a dreamer. That I needed to wake up and face reality" As Lee stood there listening, he started feeling guilty. Guilty for eavesdropping and guilty for the way he had been treating the mother of his child. He knew it was time to make his presence known. He stepped toward her.

"Hey, sometimes facing reality isn't all it's cracked up to be, besides there isn't anything wrong with having a dream...just sometimes they need to be altered a little."

"How did you find me?" a startled Candice asked.

"Where else would you be?"Lee said as he sidled up next to her leaning on the rail and looking out over the lake.

"I'm surprised you remembered, you're so caught up with your new wife." She said bitterly.

"I remembered. How could I forget? This is where you always came after we'd had a fight."

"And you always came after me, too... Except for that last time."

"That's when I knew it wouldn't work for us. Francine wasn't entirely right. You were more than the flavor of the week to me. You were my friend, and I guess, my girlfriend. I mean, I wasn't seeing anyone else then. I felt so damn guilty when I thought you had been killed, for not following her then and at least trying to make amends. I felt guilty because the last words we spoke to each other were in anger before we went off on that assignment. I knew you wanted me to chase after you after that last fight we had, just like I'd always done but that time, I couldn't. You and I were over. I know on some level, you're smart enough to know that it was over too. I realized that I needed someone who wanted to stay with me and work things out instead of running away. I know this hurts you, but that's what I have with Amanda. I couldn't chase her away if I wanted to and believe me there have been times that I've tried, but she wouldn't let me. She's a fighter and she's always fought for me, fir her family, for her friends, fought by my side. We've had our share of personal fights too, but she never backs down, never runs away the way you did. She fights tooth and nail, sometimes to the point that she infuriates the crap out of me so much that I'm ready to tear my damn hair out just because of her sheer stubbornness. She's seen me through so many disasters. Things I never even told you about. Did you know I used to have nightmares about my mom and dad?"

"No, I never did. I only knew how much you wanted to be part of a family because of what happened to your parents and the way your uncle treated you."

"Well, the Colonel did the best he could. He didn't have any more experience with kids than I did when I first met Amanda's boys." He smiled, thinking of the boys. Even though they'd only left for their father's house this morning, he already missed them. His smile didn't go unnoticed.

"Amanda was right. You really do love her kids."

"Yes, I do. They're the closest thing I've ever had to having kids of my own, until now that is. I never thought I'd ever be a father until I met Leah today."

"What do you mean?" Surely, Amanda hadn't neglected to tell him about her pregnancy. She'd looked so smug when she said it, she'd been sure that was why she was so confident that Lee wouldn't leave her. Could it be possible that he didn't know? That thought filled her with a mixture of glee and dread at the same time. On the on hand, it meant that little Miss Perfect wasn't so perfect, but on the other, it also meant that Lee was staying with her just because he wanted to.

"Well, I'm talking about Leah, of course. The results of the test came back from the lab, just as I was leaving the agency."

"So, you believe me now?"

"Yes, and I want you to know that whatever happens, I want to be there for Leah. It'll take some time because I don't really know her, but I want to try."

Candice smiled and threw her arms around him. "Oh, Lee! I'm so glad." Lee briefly returned her embrace. He pulled back when he felt it had gone on too long.

"Hey, don't get the wrong idea here. I am still married to Amanda and plan to stay that way. I love my wife and my boys and I don't plan on leaving them, ever." He paused momentarily remembering how Amanda had tried to convince him about Leah earlier in the day. "For what it's worth you really ought to lighten up on Amanda. She's been on your side from the start, you know. She tried to convince me that you were telling the truth from the first minute she laid eyes on Leah."

"My side? Humph!" she said as she turned from him to stare back out at the water. "You sure could have fooled me when she was shrieking at me!"

"Well, Candice, Amanda is very much like a fierce mother bear when it comes to protecting her children. I think you just learned the hard way that when you mess with the mama bear and her cubs, you're going to be struck by her claws. Let me tell you something, I'd better not ever hear of you criticizing the boys again. Amanda's done a fantastic job with them. Just like you, she's a single mom and raised them all by herself. They're great kids and I couldn't be prouder of them than if I were their own father."

"But they're not really _your_ boys."

"Yes they are, in every way that counts. Oh, I know they'll never call me Dad, but I've been more of a father to them in the past four years than their real father has been to them their whole lives...I was there when Jamie had the chicken pox and I'm the one who taught him about photography. I'm the one who's teaching Phillip about cars and playing basketball with them on the weekends. I was the one who chased all over the country for a wizard whopper and I had to help comfort them when their mom was shot and almost killed on our honeymoon. I was there the first time Phillip had his heart broken by a girl. They _are _my kids. It doesn't matter that I wasn't there when they were born or that we don't share DNA. It's the day-to-day moments that I've been there for since. That's what makes us a family. When I made a commitment to their mom, I made a commitment to them as well and I haven't looked back since. It's the same kind of commitment I intend to make to Leah if you'll let me. Amanda and I will do anything for Leah."

"But what about me?"

"You are the mother of my child and, if you can let go of this vendetta, maybe one of my friends, but _Amanda_ is my life."

"Bet you never called her Mandy, huh?" Candice said bitterly

Lee laughed and said, "No, she'd slap me senseless if I tried. She hates that nickname as much as you do being called Candy. She may not look like it, but she can really handle herself when it comes to hand-to-hand. You might want to think about that before you confront her again. She's not a violent person by nature, but she does what she has to do when her family is threatened and right now, she sees you as a threat to our family. So, ease up on her, will ya' She's trying to give you the benefit of that doubt and you'll find that if you'd stop seeing her as the enemy and do the same for her, she could be a loyal friend to you, just as she is to me or Francine or Billy."

Candice nodded, biting on her lip, trying to hold back the tears."I understand."

"I know this is no consolation, but if you need a friend, I'll be there."

After a moment of silence, Candice turned back to face him and said, "Listen, there's something I have to ask you. Amanda and I had a little disagreement and she said something about you and Francine...well, that you and she..."

"Had an affair?"Lee finished for her.

"Yes. Is it true?"

"Yes, it's true. Francine and I had a brief...I don't know what to call it...It was more that a fling, but not really a romance either. It was after you disappeared."

"But why? I thought she was in love with Jonathan and she was supposed to be my best friend."

"It wasn't long after you were gone that Jonathan left Francine standing at the altar. I think part of that was because of you. She refused to share her grief with anyone, including him. I think it hurt him a lot that she wouldn't let him in, was so damn determined not to show any weakness or let him try to comfort her. When he left her that was just one more blow to her. I was still feeling tremendous guilt over your disappearance. I guess I blamed myself for what happened to you. She was needy and so was I. It just sort of happened. It wasn't any great romance. We were friends who turned to each other for comfort in a time of need. We both realized pretty soon that it wasn't going to last. It wasn't meant to."

"I'm honestly surprised you told Amanda about it."

"That's another way things are different between Amanda and me than they were for you and me. We don't keep secrets from each other."

"Hmmm..." _Sure, you don't keep secrets from each other. That's why she hasn't told you her secret._ It had become apparent to her during their conversation that he didn't know that he was going to be a father again.

"Candice, if I hurt you in the past, I'm truly sorry. Back then, I couldn't be the man you wanted me to be. I've never been the kind of person to let someone make a dog out of me and I felt like that was what you wanted from me. You expected me to take orders from you and follow you around, but I couldn't do it. I still can't. Amanda and I..."

"Please. No more about how wonderful Amanda is. I can't take it. I know that I'll never measure up to her in your eyes. I just realized something I should have figured out a long time ago. You were never in love with me. It's obvious that you _are_ in love with her." She turned away from him, unable to look him in the eye anymore, because she couldn't hold back the tears any longer.

"It's not about you measuring up to Amanda. It never was. You say you can't take hearing anymore about Amanda, but you've got to. You have to understand, I have to _make_ you understand, that what you're doing, attacking her, coming after me, it's only making an already awkward situation unbearable for all of us. Have you even thought about what this might be doing to Leah? We're all adults. We can deal with this kind of stress a whole lot more that a four-year-old little girl can. You should have in her in mine and Amanda's office, that poor child thinks that all this fighting among all the so-called grown-ups in her life is her fault. Do you really want to put that kind of pressure on her? I say it's high time that all of us start acting like the adults that we are and set a better example for her. Then we need to come up with a solution that will work out for everyone."

"Ha!" Candice scoffed. "There is no solution that will work out for everyone."

"Not if you're so hell-bent on you and me being together. Let me be plain as day here. That is _never_ going to happen. Do you see this?" he said holding up his left hand as he had in the office. "This is a symbol of my commitment to Amanda. The day she put this ring on my finger, I promised to love and to cherish her for all the days of our lives and I have every intention of living up the promises I made to her that day, just as she has every intention of living up to those same promises to me. That's what marriage is all about."

"If your marriage is so great than why have you been hiding it all this time?"

"That's a damn good question," Lee said. "I wish I had a damn good answer, but really the truth is it was blind panic. We got into a situation on one of our cases where we watched a family nearly torn apart by this job and it scared us both to death that the same thing could happen to our family. You should know from your own experience what that's like. Isn't that why you stayed hidden for so long? Because you were trying to protect Leah?"

"Yeah," she said. "I would give my own life to protect her if it came down to it."

"Just as Amanda and I would do the same. That's why we got married in secret. We wanted so badly to be together, but we also knew the dangers involved. We thought we were doing the right thing to keep Phillip and Jamie safe, but I've come to realize, we both have, just how stupid that was. We haven't been able to live any kind of normal life together. Sometimes, it's almost as if we're not married at all. I know that I sure as hell haven't felt much like her husband any more than I feel like a father to Leah right now, but I want both of those things to change."

"I don't know, Lee," Candice said. "I don't know how I feel about all of this. I held on so long to the idea of Leah having a real family, I don't know if I can deal with this. I certainly hadn't counted on the idea of our little girl having a stepmother."

"And two older stepbrothers," Lee added. "Look, just because it's not what you envisioned, that doesn't mean that Leah can't have her family. She's just going to have a bigger family than you imagined."

"Just one that doesn't include me," Candice said bitterly as tears began flowing down her face again.

"Candice, no matter what, you're still her mother. That's something that's never going to change. For what it's worth, I'm sorry." There was a strained silence between them for a long moment. Lee couldn't take it any longer. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Look, I need you to come back to the agency with me. That's why I came looking for you. There are still a lot of things that need to be wrapped up. Besides I have a daughter I 'd like to get to know."

"Okay," she said as she wiped the tears from her face, forced a fake smile and turned around to follow him to the car. She stood in a shocked silence as they reached it. "What happened to the Porsche?"

Lee grimaced at the thought "Long story, but it ended with the Porsche falling off a cliff."

"Oh, Lee I'm sorry, you loved that car."

Lee grinned, remembering Amanda's similar words to him at that time, how he'd corrected her by telling her that you don't really love a car, as he'd been learning even then that up to that point he really hadn't known what love was, not until he'd fallen in love with the woman who had changed his life forever. As he started the car, he glanced down and smiled at the gold band on his hand catching the late afternoon sunlight, shining like a beacon reminding him of where his home was.


	16. Chapter 16

Efraim Beaman fidgeted nervously as he sat waiting for his long time business associate. He had hoped that this part of his life was over when Victor Carrerra had been arrested. Unfortunately Victor had made it quite clear shortly after his arrest that no one ever left his service until they were no longer of use to him. It was clearly in Efraim's best interest to remain useful. He knew that Victor would never turn him in. Disloyalty was handled by Carrerra the old-fashioned way, jail cell or not. The sweat rolled down Efraim's back as the South American drug lord entered the room. Prisoners weren't usually allowed private conference rooms but then the rules had never seemed to apply to Carrerra. Even in prison, he was in control. 

"You may leave us now, " Carrerra dismissed the guard.

"How are you holding up in here, Carrerra?"

"The decor leaves something to be desired but other than that it's not a bad place to spend the next 5 years. I'll live off your American government while my fortune grows. I've had to make a few people aware of how I operate things but all in all they've been very cooperative. Everyone has a price my dear boy always remember that."

"You've bought off the whole prison?" Efraim asked incredulously.

"Never buy off those you can intimidate into doing your bidding. Thanks to my connections, it has cost me very little to remain comfortable during my stay here. Besides, if you buy someone off once, you've got them under your thumb forever. Blackmail is a wonderful tool that should never be ignored. Don't you agree?"

Efraim winced a little knowing that was exactly how he had gotten under Carrerra's thumb.

"So now, enough small talk. I'm sure you didn't drive all the way out here to make sure they were leaving mints on my pillow at night"

"I'm afraid I have some rather disturbing news, Sir" Efraim tugged at his shirt collar dreading having to break the news to his "employer". "It seems that Candice Davenport has been alive and in hiding all these years. She somehow managed to escape from the van explosion that killed your brother in law."

"What do you mean, she's still alive?" Carrerra bellowed as he pounded his fists on the table.

Efraim knew that Carrerra could break him like a twig. He wondered if the guard would ignore his bloodcurdling screams for help.

"How is that possible?"

Efraim shook his head. He couldn't believe she'd come back after all the warnings he'd given her. Was she completely insane?

"I don't know, but I've been doing some poking around and it's really her." he said. Of course, he wasn't about to tell Carrerra the real reason he'd known it was her. If Carrerra ever found out that he was the one who pulled Candice out of that van he'd end up at the bottom of the Potomac. He knew he had to silence Candice before Carrerra found out the details of her escape, not to mention her shooting her mouth off about their operation in South America. They thought they'd busted the ring just by getting Victor, but when Candice found out that he was the only one arrested, she'd know that it wasn't over. He wondered sometimes if part of the organization hadn't realized that he'd helped Candice escape and if that was why they'd shot him. His contacts within the organization had said it was to keep the other agents from knowing that he'd been playing both sides of the fence, even if it was against his will. Even though, the shooting had nearly cost him his life, it had turned out to be a good thing as the job in fabrications had enabled him to funnel fake IDs and credit cards to Candice with no one being the wiser.

"You've got to do something. She knows too much about our operation to let her just walk around."

"But what? Everyone knows what happened to her now, so if she suddenly disappears again, they'll know that someone within The Agency was involved."

"Not necessarily. I have plenty of contacts outside The Agency."

"Yeah, but they're not stupid. Eventually they'll put two and two together. If I could have gotten Francine to take an interest in me, I'd have an excuse for getting close to Candice and find out how much she remembers. But that damn fiancé of hers had to come back to town."

Carrerra let out a bellowing laugh "My dear boy," he started as he got up and walked around behind Efraim and placed his enormous hands on his shoulders "I've seen your lovely Miss Desmond and that was a pipe dream of yours." He started to massage Efraim's shoulders "I suggest you quit bitching about your personal life and figure out what you're going to do about my little problem. I don't have to tell you how disastrous it could be for us if that bimbo starts shooting off her mouth."

"But she may not know anything! They were only guessing on that whole investigation."

Victor's grip tightened on Efraim's collarbone. "Somebody had to know something or I wouldn't be in this lovely place. I didn't get to the position of power I'm in today by playing let's wait and see, and you aren't going to be around much longer if you try to second guess me."

"What do you want me to do" Efraim choked out.

"Now that's my boy" Carrerra said as he loosened his grip and patted him on the back "Here's what I suggest"...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Francine's car was filled with an awkward silence as she navigated the streets of DC to get to her apartment building. Amanda glanced back at Leah who was safely buckled into the backseat and said, "Are you doing okay back there, Sweetie?"

"Yep," she said as she happily bounced up and down in her seat. "Are we going to Daddy's house now?"

"No, Honey, Auntie Francine is taking me to get my car, then we're going to go back to my house, okay?"

"Oh, that's right," Leah said. "I forgot."

Amanda smiled as she turned back to face the front of the car.

"Amanda..." Francine began awkwardly. "I...I just want to apologize for lashing out at you back at the office."

"Don't worry about it, Francine. This whole thing has go us all on edge. I'm sorry that I told Candice about you and Lee. I had no right to do that and you had every right to be mad at me for doing it."

"In a way, I guess I don't blame you. I'm sure that whatever Candice said to you earned her that little slap in the face. She can be a bit...abrasive," Francine said trying to be mindful of her friend's child in the backseat.

"To say the least," Amanda said. "Still, I opened my big mouth when I shouldn't have. I should never have let her get to me, I should have just been the bigger person and walked away."

"I don't think Candice would have let you. She can be every bit as stubborn as you are," Francine said with a chuckle.

Amanda thought about how Candice had chased her into the ladies room and nodded in agreement. "Still, I shouldn't have brought you into an argument that had nothing to do with you."

"Amanda, would you just forget about it already," Francine snapped impatiently. "It's done and like you said you can't take it back now. That little secret is out there now and we're just going to have to deal with the consequences. Speaking of which, you need to deal with a secret of your own. You can't keep hiding this from Lee. The longer you do, the worse it's going to make it, especially if he finds out that I knew before he did."

"Candice does too," Amanda said.

"What?"Francine said turning to gape at her.

"Watch the road, please. I'd like us all to get there in one piece."

Francine turned her attention back to her driving and said, "So, how exactly did she find out? Is this another one of those things that you blurted out when you were arguing with her?"

"Yes," Amanda admitted sheepishly. "She just made me so mad with the way that she kept insisting that Lee would leave me and marry her because they have a child together."

"So, naturally, you decided to put her in her place by telling her that she's not the only one with his child?"

"It wasn't exactly like that," Amanda said. "I was puking my guts up and she insinuated that it was because I was weak..."

"Amanda, I'm surprised you let that get to you. You know as well as I do that you are anything but weak."

"It was more than that, Francine. She said that she knew it was because I was going to lose Lee to her and that I couldn't handle it or handle confrontation." Amanda laid out the whole story for Francine bit by bit.

"Wow," Francine said once Amanda had finished astonished that her once-best friend had gone that far to deliberately hurt Amanda. She wished she could have been a fly on the wall to hear Amanda put her in her place as she'd tried to do herself to make her see that her dream of a family life with Lee was never going to happen.

"Yeah," Amanda said. "Now, I don't know what to do. What if Lee finds her first and she tells him before I have a chance to, but at the same time, now's not exactly he right time to give him this kind of news."

"It's not like he can just let her run around on the loose either, not until we know more about this mysterious benefactor of hers and what part he played in the Carrerra family's organization and the failed attempt to bust them that put her life in danger to start with."

"I know, but what if she tells him first?" Amanda said worriedly as she bit down on her lower lip.

"Amanda, stop it," Francine snapped having finally lost her patience. "I'm damn tired of being stuck in the middle of all of this! I've got Candice on my case for being friends with you, Lee on my case for being friends with her and you whining to me about problems that _you_ created. If she does tell him first, then you have no one to blame but yourself. I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for any of you right now! If you'd listened to me when I told you that you needed to tell him right away, you wouldn't have to worry about it. If Candice had listened to me when I told her to back off, you'd have never blurted it out to her to start with and she wouldn't have had you unleashing on her. If Lee had listened to me when I told him to keep you away from his apartment this morning, things wouldn't be as tense as they are right now. But, no, all three of you are too damned stubborn to listen to anything that I have to say. I mean, who am I? I'm just the one that all of you turn to when you need someone to unload on, but none of you listens to a damn word I say. Well, this is it!" she said as she pulled the curb in front of her apartment building. "I've had it! I'm completely fed up with all of you! I don't want to hear another single word from any of you about how tense or how uncomfortable this situation is. You all three need to sit down and have a good long talk and work this out and leave me out of it! I want nothing more to do with any of it!"

Amanda looked at Francine once her rant was done and said, "Feel better?"

"Much, thanks," Francine set as she let out a sigh. "Look, I don't really mean that I want to be entirely left out of it. I mean, I do want to be kept in the loop. The point that I'm trying to make is that you're all talking to me when you should be talking to each other.

"You're not wrong, Francine. We should be," Amanda said. "Listen, I should get Leah back to my house so you can help Lee search for Candice. Thanks for the ride."

"No problem at all, Amanda, and remember what we talked about earlier. _Tell him_."

"I'll tell him," Amanda promised as she got out of the car, "Come with me, Princess, " she said using Lee's new nickname for his daughter as she unfastened the child's seat belt and scooped her into her arms. "You ready to come home with me?"

"Oh, yes," Lee said gleefully as she linked her arms around Amanda's neck and leaned into her. "Bye-bye, Auntie Francine," Leah called though the still-open back door of the vehicle..

"Seeya' later, Francine," Amanda said as she dug her car keys out of her purse while balancing Leah on one hip.

Francine watched in awe at how adept Amanda was at juggling holding a small child, unlocking her car and getting Leah settled in it without missing a beat. In watching her, she thought that if she and Jonathan ever decided to have children together, she fully intended to take advantage of the fact that Amanda now owed her a favor. She watched until Amanda drove away and was about to exit her car to see if her old friend had decided to hide out in her apartment when her phone rang. She picked it up, "yeah," she answered.

"It's me," Lee said on the other end. "I'm in my car with Candice."

"You found her, great," she said with a sigh of relief.

"Yeah," Lee said. "We're going to make a stop to empty out her safely deposit box, then head back to the office. Can you meet us there?"

"Of course," Francine said.

"Let me talk to Amanda for a minute," Lee said.

"Sorry, Lee, she just took off, heading back to her place."

"Damn," Lee said. "I guess I'll just see her at her place later then and I'll see you back at the office."

The line went dead then and as Francine hung up the phone, she couldn't help but wonder if the agitation she'd heard in lee's voice was because Candice had indeed told him about Amanda's pregnancy.

"Damn!' She swore as she re-started her vehicle to make her way back to the agency.


	17. Chapter 17

"'Manda?" Leah said as Amanda helped her out of her Wagoneer.

"Yes, Leah?" Amanda said as she took the little girl's hand and closed the car door.

"What were you and Auntie Francine talking about," Leah asked curiously, "What are you s'posed to tell Daddy. Am I in trouble?"

" Oh, no, Sweetie, I just have a special surprise for your daddy, but let's just keep it between us girls for now. Daddy's birthday is in a few days and I don't want the surprise ruined." Since her mother was planning a party for him and they'd already planned to tell the family the truth about their marriage that day, she thought it would also be the perfect opportunity to tell him that he was going to be a father again since Candice would most definitely _not_ be invited.

Amanda headed toward the house hoping against all hope that her mother was out for the evening. The last thing she was in the mood for was trying to explain all of this to her mother.

As she walked, she was aware of the tiny hand in hers. In the chaos that had taken over the day, she hadn't had the opportunity to even consider that this beautiful child was now hers as much as Phillip and Jamie were Lee's. It seemed it had been so long since there had been a small child in her life. The thought of getting to know Leah excited Amanda almost as much as the prospect of the new baby.

"'Manda, is this where my daddy lives," Leah asked interrupting Amanda's reverie.

"Um," how could she answer this so she didn't confuse this poor child any further."This is my house that I had before I met your daddy," she said as she pulled out the key to unlock the door.

"Mother, are you home?" she called as she poked her head in the door. When no answer came, she walked in.

"Does your mommy live with you?" Leah wanted to know. They went into den hand in hand.

"Yes, Sweetheart. She lives here and so do my two little boys." Leah spied a picture of Phillip and Jamie on a shelf.

"Is that them?"Leah asked pointing to the picture of Dotty and the boys.

"Uh huh" said Amanda taking the picture down so Leah could examine it more closely. "The taller one is Phillip, and the one with the glasses is Jamie," she said pointing out each of the boys to Leah. "That's my mommy there in the middle.

"They aren't little," Leah giggled.

Amanda sighed knowing that she was right. Time had flown by. It seemed only yesterday that she had held Phillip in her arms and rocked him to sleep. "You're right, they certainly aren't little anymore...but you know what, no matter how old you get you'll always seem little to your mommy and daddy."

"No way, uh-uh, not me. I'm going to be all grown up and go shopping in New York with my Auntie Francine and eat all the chocolate I want and stay up till ten o'clock and never ever eat peas again and be a movie star and have lots of boyfriends," Leah stated matter-of-factly as she sat down in a chair. Amanda got down on her level to make eye contact with her.

"Well I'm certainly glad that you have a plan. You know not many girls your age know what they want to do," an amused Amanda stated.

"Well, _I _do."

Amanda had to wonder what the boys were going to think of their new little stepsister. It had been just the two of them for so long. Now, not only were they getting a little sister but an infant sibling as well. Throw having Lee around as their stepfather full time and their plates were going to be pretty full. It was going to be a big adjustment for everyone. They were going to have to deal with a lot of changes all at once.

"So, what would you like to do?"

"Are we going to see a movie tonight?"

"That's what your daddy said." The sound of the word daddy with Lee's name associated with it still seemed strange to Amanda. He had been a great father to the boys but they had never called him anything except Lee and they probably never would. Much sooner than she liked to think about it though, their child would be calling Lee daddy.

"Well, then I better take a nap."

Amanda had to give Candice credit as she chuckled. She may not be the kindest person in the world, but just in the way that Leah behaved, she could tell that she was a conscientious mother. Her boys never voluntarily went to bed anytime. Amanda stood up and offered her hand to Leah.

"I'll tell you what, Why don't we go upstairs, and you can take your nap in my room?"

"Okay." She said as she took Amanda's hand and walked upstairs with her.

"Here we go," Amanda said when they got to her room. "Let's get those shoes off you, Okay?"

"Your room is really pretty. When I grow up I want to have a room just like this one only I want a bed with a pretty calopy over it" Leah said as she let out a yawn.

Amanda took her shoes off for her and helped her lie down. "You mean a canopy?"

"NO I mean a calopy...almost like a tent but prettier and you don't have to sleep outside. Mommy had one when we lived in Italy but I can hardly 'member it cause I was so little but it was beautiful." Leah looked around the room and noticed a giant stuffed panda sitting on a chair in the corner. "Is that your bear?"

"It sure is. Your daddy gave that to me a long time ago."

"Really?" Amanda picked overstuffed panda up and walked over to Leah with it. Leah grabbed it and hugged it tightly.

"Yes, it was not too long after we first met."

"Aren't you too grown up for teddy bears?"

"Oh, I don't know, Leah. I think there's a little bit of a child in all grown-ups. Besides, it's kind of special to me. My nickname when I was a little girl was Panda."

"That's a silly nickname. Why did people call you that?"

"Because it rhymes with my name, Amanda," Amanda explained. "My mommy called me Panda when I was really little."

"'Manda, will you tell me a story?"She said still holding the bear.

"Sure, Sweetheart," Amanda answered as she brushed a blond curl out of Leah's face. "How about I tell you about how your daddy gave me that bear?" Amanda sat down on the bed next to Leah and put an arm around her.

"Yeah!"Leah said with enthusiasm.

"Ok, it started three years ago when your daddy and I were keeping an eye on this twelve year old boy..." 

An hour later, Lee was at Amanda's front door, knocking and getting no answer. Candice was getting impatient.

"Where in the hell is she?" She snapped. "I want to know where my child is."

"Cool it, will you? They couldn't have gone anywhere. Amanda's car is still in the driveway. They're probably just upstairs or in the kitchen baking something. Amanda gets really involved when she's in the kitchen."

"Baking?" Candice snorted in disgust. "You can't be serious."

Lee glared at Candice as he reached for his keys and let himself in. "Yes, I'm serious, Amanda loves to bake and she happens to be very good at it."

"Poppyseed cake, I suppose."

"Among other things," Lee said. "I don't think she's met a recipe that she can't master."

"Why do you have a key to her house, if no one is supposed to know you're married?"

"Amanda gave it to me a long time ago, in case of an emergency. Besides I spend more time here than at my place now anyway. It's only logical that I have a key... I couldn't go on picking the lock forever now, could I?" He said as he walked in. Being surprised at how dark the house was he called out for his wife. "Amanda!" He headed upstairs with Candice hot on his heels only to find a scene that stopped him short. There in the bed he found Amanda sound asleep with Leah in her arms who was still cuddling the giant panda. Lee smiled seeing his wife and child together and knowing from the presence of the panda, the story that Amanda must have told Leah.

Candice was mortified that because of her tantrum, this woman who'd stolen her dreams from her had been given time to bond with her child.

Lee sat down on the edge of the bed and gingerly kissed Amanda. She stirred slightly.

"Wake up, Mrs. Stetson." He said.

"Lee?" she said, waking up a little more. "Oh my gosh, I must have fallen asleep." she said as she sat up. She gently nudged Leah to wake her.

Candice shoved her way through the door and scooped up her child."Mommy's here." she said, as she gave Amanda a look to remind her of just who the mother was. Amanda returned her look as she moved into Lee's open arms reminding Candice who the wife was as Lee pulled her into his lap.

There was a strained silence that all three adults were having trouble with, however, Leah solved all their problems.

"Are we going to go get pizza or not?" She asked impatiently. All the adults laughed as Leah really had no idea of the tension between the three of them.

"Of course we are," Lee said. "Why don't you have your mommy help you put your shoes back on and we'll all go." He and Amanda rose from the bed together and while he was waiting for Candice to help Leah with her shoes, he glanced out the window mainly just to kill time, but then became disturbed by what he saw. "Amanda, pack a bag," he said firmly.

"What?"

"Don't argue, just do it. Pack, now! Change of plans," He said as Amanda hurried to pack a bag. "Grab your gun, too. You may need it."

"Lee, what's going on," Candice said worriedly.

"I'm not sure yet, but I'm not taking any chances with my family," Lee said. Candice's heart leapt at Lee's words. Off her look, Lee said, "Don't get excited, Candice. This doesn't change anything that I told you earlier." He then turned to his wife and said, "Amanda, where's your mom?"

"I don't know. She wasn't home when we got here," Amanda said, "Maybe with Captain Curt."

"You have his number, right?"

"Yes," Amanda said.

"Call him, now," Lee said. "If she's there, tell her to stay put. I don't care what story you have to tell her. Just don't let her come home tonight. I'll finish this for you." Lee took over Amanda's packing while Amanda hurriedly called her mother's boyfriend to find out that she was indeed there and had already planned to spend the night. "Okay, well, then I guess I'll see you tomorrow," Amanda said as she hung up the phone and turned to see Lee making sure that her revolver was loaded. "Lee, what is going on?'

"There's a Community Cable van down the block across the street and I've been around this neighborhood enough to know that they don't work this late. If I remember right, they don't work past five."

"You're right, they don't," Amanda said remembering a month or so ago when Lee had been hanging out with the family and they'd needed cable repair and they'd been told they'd have to wait until the next day. She was touched that Lee had remembered as well.

"Here," Lee said as he handed her weapon to her while he checked the clip in his own. At seeing Amanda cringe as she tucked the reloaded revolver under her jacket, he said, "I know, Honey, but it's necessary." He tucked his pistol at his back and softly stroked his wife's hair.

Candice watched this interaction with interest and said, "What? Is the little woman afraid to carry?"

Lee ignored her jibe and said, "Candice, I'll drop you and Leah at Francine's place. Amanda, you're staying with me tonight and we're going to have to take your car. Now, let's get out of here." He hustled the ladies down the stairs and toward the front door. "Amanda, get your keys. You're driving. If they start following, I'm a better shot at a moving target than you are."

"Shouldn't I be armed too," Candice said then with an icy glare at Amanda, added, "I _do_ know how to fire at a moving target." She thought of how Lee had said she'd fought by his side yet she couldn't imagine how that could be possible.

"No," Lee said irritated that this was the second barb she'd hurled at his wife and thinking that she had a lot of damn nerve slinging insults at Amanda in her own home, but now was not the time to start another argument. He gritted his teeth and said tensely, "Your job is to protect Leah. You'll be in the backseat with her. If they start shooting, you keep your head down and hers too. Now, let's head out nice and easy. We're just a family going out for pizza."

Leah who'd been uncharacteristically quiet all this time said, "Daddy, why do you look so scared?"

"It's okay, Princess. It's going to be fine. You just stay with your mommy and do what she tells you to do, okay? You promise?" he said as he stroked her tiny head.

"I promise, Daddy," Leah said with a smile.

"Good," he said with a brief smile at her that soon faded as he opened the front door and saw the cable van still sitting there at the end of the block and two men sitting in it. He nodded to Amanda, who took the lead, car keys in hand, as the rest of them followed her to the driveway, Candice still carrying Leah. "This may get a little rough. Candice, make sure she's buckled in tight, you hear me?" Lee said as he slid into the passenger seat beside his wife.

"I think after five years, I know how to protect my own daughter," Candice snapped impatiently as she buckled her daughter in and quickly scrambled in behind her.

Lee shook his head impatiently at Candice's snippy attitude. He'd hoped that their talk at the park would have cooled her hot head a little, but no such luck. He gritted his teeth once again to keep himself from lashing out at her as he really wanted to. Instead, he turned to his wife, squeezed her hand gently for a brief moment and said, "You ready, Partner?"

"Ready," Amanda replied with a nervous smile. She started the care and slowly backed it out of the driveway.

As Amanda turned the car onto Maplewood drive, and began to drive out of her subdivision, the van did a quick u-turn in a neighbor's driveway just as Lee had suspected it would, though he'd hoped he was just being paranoid and worried for nothing. "Damn, here we go," he said reaching around to his back and the 9mm hidden there, bracing himself for what may come.


	18. Chapter 18

Author's Note: i just wanted to say a big thank you for all the reviews and let you all know that this is an entirely new chapter. When Kim and I originally worked on this, we had skipped a few days in our heroes' lives, but I felt in rereading it, that it could use a little more action and some filling in of the days in between. There are other already written chapters to follow as they were in the original version. This is an attempt to fill in the gaps.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Just take it nice and easy," Lee said to Amanda. "Don't let them know we're onto them."

"Lee, I know how to handle myself behind the wheel or have you forgotten the incident with the vigilant?" Amanda said in irritation.

"Hah," Candice said triumphantly from the backseat at the thought that for all his talk about how great Amanda was, it seemed even he didn't trust her abilities.

"I know," Lee conceded once again ignoring Candice. "I'm sorry. I'm just...you know..."

"Tense...Yeah, I know," Amanda said.

Candice looked disbelieving at the two of them, a little irked by their uncanny ability to sense what each other was thinking, first in Lee's instant notice of Amanda's discomfort at carrying a gun and now her innate sense of what he was feeling. In seeing this, she was coming to realize that the words Lee had spoken to her at the park were more than just words. While she may not like it, it seemed these two complemented each other perfectly. "So, you said we're going to Francine's first?" she asked to ease the tension in the car.

"Yeah, but we're taking the long way to get there," Amanda said. "If these guys are after you, chances are, they may expect us to go there. I'm going to try to lose them first. Hang on tight," she warned as she sharply turned the car onto the Key Bridge to lead them across the Potomac into the heart of DC, expertly dodging other cars as she weaved in and out of the last vestiges of rush-hour traffic attempting to lose their pursuers.

Candice glanced worriedly out the back window to see the van edging closer. "You might want to step on it," she snapped. "They're getting closer."

"I can see that," Amanda fired back as she'd been keeping a close watch on the van, glancing through the rearview mirror while still trying to watch the flow of traffic as she'd been taught to do. "But there's only so much I can do in this traffic."

Lee had also been keeping tabs on their pursuers through the side mirror and became increasingly worried, the closer they got. "Get down!' he shouted to Candice who quickly ducked and grabbed for Leah shielding her tiny body with her own just seconds before that back window was shattered by gunfire.

"Mommeeeee," Leah screeched in terror as bullets flew over her head.

"Oh, Lord," Amanda cried and cringed at the sound of shattering glass and the cries of the frightened four-year-old in the backseat as she stepped on the accelerator and veered to the left, expertly navigating the wagon between two vehicles, while Lee turned and fired two shots at the van that had just pulled up to the right of them.

"Amanda, look out," Lee yelled as their opponents fired back.

Amanda instinctively ducked her head to avoid the flying bullets, keeping her head just high enough to still peer through the windshield and keep an eye on traffic. At seeing at opening to the right as they neared the end of the bridge, she sharply turned the wheel, not only changing lanes, but veering off to the right onto M street, the van still in hot pursuit as she breathed a sigh of relief at getting off the bridge and having more streets to lose their pursuers in. She made a left, followed by another sharp left onto Prospect toward the university.

"Where the hell are you going? You just taking a trip around the block," Candice shouted from the back seat raising her head with a glare at Lee. "You should have let me drive."

"Candice, shut up, get your ass down and stay down," Lee shouted as he aimed another shot through the shattered back window at the van that was now behind them once she'd dropped her head again.

"Mommy, I'm scared," Leah said with a whimper.

"Shhh," Candice said. "It's okay, Baby, we're going to be okay.

No sooner were the words out of her mouth when the wagon skidded on the pavement as one of the back tires was blown out. "Hold on," Amanda said as she attempted to control her wildly skidding car.

"There, Amanda," Lee said pointing to the nearby library as he leaned out his window, firing a well placed bullet into the front tire of van, nodding with a satisfied smile. "There, now we're at least on equal footing," he said just as the car careened into a cluster of trees surrounding the library. Without waiting for the car to come to a complete stop, he barreled out of it saying, "Candice, make sure you stay with her," just as he dove for cover as the two men exited the van and began firing wildly.

Amanda scrambled out of the driver's side, ducking behind the front of the car for cover as she cocked her revolver, preparing for a fight. Glancing around for where the shots were coming from, she took careful aim, smiling in triumph when her target found its mark, taking out the kneecap of her closest opponent. As the thug cried out and went down, she heard another masculine cry of pain to her left. "LEE!" She shouted panic rising. She quickly made a beeline for the row of trees where she'd seen her husband disappear, her stomach roiling and her head spinning again as she reached him and saw the blood pooling on his shirt. "Oh my gosh, Lee," she said in terror.

"I'm okay," he said with a groan of pain as he rose on shaky legs and fired one last shot at the head of the second gunman lodging a bullet squarely between his eyes.

"You're not okay," Amanda said as the gunfire ceased. "You're bleeding," she said just as she hit the ground.

"Amanda!"Lee cried as she his wife's prone body on the ground as he rushed to her side only to be halted by the pitiful cries coming from the back seat of the Wagoneer.

"Mommy, wake up," Leah was crying.

Lee found himself torn between his unconscious wife and his terrified daughter. He sighed, quickly checked Amanda over for any visible sign of injury, checking her pulse, letting out a sigh of relief at finding that she didn't seem to be hurt and was breathing evenly.

"Daddy, help!"Leah shrieked.

Lee's heart broke at hearing his tiny little girl's cry of terror and made his way as quickly as he could to the back of the wagon, finding that the back passenger side door had been wedged shut by its collision with a nearby tree. He lumbered around to the other side as quickly as he injured torso would let him, thankful that he'd only been grazed by the flying bullet.

Lee opened the driver's side back door and gaped at what he saw. Leah was still in her seat belt but was pinned down by her mother's seemingly lifeless body, blood gushing from a head wound that was embedded with broken bits of glass, her right leg twisted as an odd angle. Lee reached beneath Candice to free Leah from her belt, sliding her small frame out from under her mother's weight and hugged her tightly.

"Shhh, Princess, Daddy's here. it's going to be okay," he said soothingly as Leah still whimpered wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. He sighed again just hoping that he was telling his daughter the truth. He gingerly climbed fully into the back seat to check on her mother, checking her for a pulse and found that Candice was still alive, but breathing shallowly. As he tried to get his bearings, he heard the sound of sirens approaching. He briefly glanced in that direction through the shattered back window to find police cars heading his way. He climbed out of the car, hoisted Leah onto his hip and reached for his ID, knowing he was going to have some explaining to do

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Francine sat at her desk outside Billy's office poring through the Carrerra files and Candice's debriefing, trying to find anything that might give her a clue as to who her friend's mysterious benefactor was and sighed in frustration when nothing jumped out at her. It just didn't make sense. Who would have been well-placed enough within the Carrerra drug cartel to know all the ins and outs of what they were doing and still have the resources to provide Candice with the forged IDs.

"Think, Desmond, think," she told herself as she glanced around the nearly empty bullpen to clear her head. "You're missing something major that's right in front of your face."

"Maybe this will help," a voice to her left said startling her out of her intense thoughts.

Francine glance over to see Efraim Beaman standing there holding out a box of DeVaronna chocolates. She gazed at the box longingly; thinking that was just what she needed right now, but also didn't want to encourage the man's unhealthy obsession with her. "Beaman, if this is another one of your lame attempts to get me to go out with you, you can just forget it," she said with another sigh at the thought of turning down her favorite chocolates.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Frannie, but these aren't from me," He said as he set the box on her desk, surreptitiously trying to sneak a peek at what she was doing. "Your boyfriend left this for you at Mrs. Marston's desk and she asked me to bring it down to you since I was coming down here anyway. You know how the old bat doesn't like to have anything cluttering up her space."

"Yeah, I know," she said with a chuckle. "And for the record, Jonathan is my fiancé', not my boyfriend."

"Oh? Then why is it that you haven't set a wedding date yet?"

"Because we've only been back together for three weeks," she answered. "That was one of the things we were supposed to be talking about while I was off. If you recall, I wasn't supposed to be back to work for another three days from our vacation, but then Candice showed up out of the blue..."

"I bet that must have been a surprise for you, having your best friend back," Efraim said in an attempt to get her to open up about what her friend was up to and why she was back in DC.

"To say the least," Francine said as she reached for the box and found a small card attached. She smiled as she read Jonathan's words. She picked up the phone and dialed his number. "Hi," she said with a warm smile when he answered. "Thanks for the chocolates."

"It's the least I could do since it's my fault that Leah polished off your other box at my place," her fiancé' replied.

Efraim began to get annoyed as the smile on Francine's face widened while she listened to her fiancé'. "A bribe, huh?" she said in a flirty tone. "I'd love to, but I can't. I'm swamped here...You'll make it worth my while? Exactly how to you plan to do that?"

Efraim became more impatient, the longer her call dragged on, when she turned from him slightly, blushing slightly, he took full advantage of it and leaned over her desk, a wave of panic flooding through him as he saw the files on her desk. "You know, Francine," he said. "If you need to go, I can help out with some of this stuff," he said.

Francine glared at him for interrupting her phone conversation, "Excuse me a second, Honey," She said as she covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "What are you saying, Efraim," she snapped at him with a cool glare.

"I was saying if you want to go, i can help with this stuff. I mean, like you just said, your vacation did get interrupted."

Francine softened at the sweet gesture. "Are you sure you wouldn't mind?" she asked hopefully.

"Not at all," Efraim said. "I mean, after all, I have an interest in this just as much as you do. I was involved in the original investigation too. I've got the scars to prove it, remember?"

"Yeah, how could I forget? Your first real assignment as a rookie and it nearly killed you," Francine said sympathetically.

"Which is exactly why I want to help," Efraim said playing on Francine's uncharacteristic moment of sympathy. "If there's still someone out there from the Carrerra cartel, I want a chance to nab them before they finish the job they started on me."

"Right," Francine said with a nod as she turned back to the phone. "I'll meet you in ten minutes," she said into the phone before hanging it up then turning back to Efraim. She rose from her seat. "Thanks, Efraim, I owe you one." She gathered up her things and made a beeline for the door.

_No, I owe you, _he thought gleefully as he watched her go. Once she was out of sight, he began to gather up the files piled on her desk.

"Francine," Billy's booming voice sounded as he poked his head out of his office, stopping Efraim in his tracks.

_Damn!_ Efraim thought as he turned to face his section chief. "She just left for the night. I was going to pick up where she left off here," Efraim said quickly hoping that his boss didn't see through him.

"Well, drop that for now, Lee just called. There's been some trouble," Billy said.

"Trouble?"Efraim squawked out.

"There was an attack, he thinks directed at Candice. Lee was grazed by a flying bullet and he said both Candice and Amanda are unconscious. They're on their way to the hospital now," Billy explained. "Get Francine on the phone, tell her what's going on and that they're heading to Parker General, then get in here. I need to talk to you, Pronto!"

Efraim nodded, quickly dialed the number for Francine's car phone, explained to her what was going on, then entered Billy's office.

"Did you get a hold of Francine?" Billy asked. When Efraim nodded, Billy said, "Good, now sit down."

"Is there something else going on?"Efraim asked nervously.

"Yeah. I wanna' know exactly what you were doing paying a visit to Victor Carrerra in prison today."


	19. Chapter 19

Lee paced restlessly back and forth in the emergency room's waiting area, awaiting news on his wife's condition casting an occasional glance to his daughter who was calmer now as she sat in the corner of the room at a small table made for kids happily playing with the hospital-provided building blocks. He sighed and halted in his pacing to kneel before his daughter. "How you doin' there, Princess?"

Leah giggled and said, "Okay."

"What's so funny, Little One?"

"You," She said.

"Me, huh?" How am I funny?"

"'Cause you call me Princess. I'm not a princess."

"Well, you look like a princess to me," He said, "with you curly blond hair, your great big, soulful eyes, your pretty pink outfit with your matching pink hair ribbons. Just like a princess."

Leah giggled again and said, "Mommy said you'd like my pink hair ribbons."

"Your mommy was right," Lee said with a smile as he tried not to let his agitation at waiting for news show to his daughter.

Leah's expression changed to one of worry as she said, "Daddy, is Mommy okay?"

"Mommy's going to be just fine. There are some good doctors here and they're going to take really good care of her. She's probably going to have to stay her for a couple of days, so how would you feel about staying with me while she's here?"

"Where you live or at 'Manda's house?"

"Hmm," Lee said thoughtfully. He'd initially thought of his place, but now that he was thinking more seriously about it, Amanda's might be better as she had more room. The only place that he could put Leah up was on his couch and he'd already had Billy order a surveillance team to keep a watch on Amanda's since that's where the attack had started. "We'll figure that out when Amanda's awake, okay?"

"Is she okay?"Leah asked.

"I don't know yet," Lee said just as Francine flew in the doors. He stood to give her his attention.

"Lee, what's going on?" What the hell happened? Are you okay?"Francine asked in a rush as she took in the sight of him, his shirt open and bandages just below his ribs.

"I'm fine, Francine," Lee said. "It's Amanda and Candice that I'm worried about."

Francine nodded and said, "Efraim said that they were both brought in here unconscious. Have they told you anything yet?" She gestured toward the nurse's station.

"Not so far and that's what has me worried. I don't even know what happened to Amanda. She didn't seem to be injured, but she just collapsed. Candice, I get. She was hit in the head with shards of flying glass and it looked like her leg got jammed against the door when the car got wrecked while she was trying to protect Leah." He glanced at his daughter with a smile. "But Amanda..." He looked at Francine with a pained expression on his face. "I...I just wish I knew what the hell was going on with her. She's been so sick."

Francine nodded, but silently fumed as she realized that Amana still hadn't told Lee about her pregnancy. "Amanda's strong," Francine said. "She'll be fine. I mean, you said she wasn't injured, right?"

"Yeah," Lee said. He sank wearily into the nearest chair, shoving his hands thorough his hair as he stared at the floor. He let out a groan of frustration, looked up at Francine and asked, "Did she say anything to you at lunch yesterday? About what's going on, I mean? I keep getting this nagging suspicion that she's hiding something from me, but I can't quite put my finger on what or why."

Francine cringed inwardly, her mind in a whirl, knowing that Amanda would kick her ass for revealing her secret, but also feeling that Lee had a right to know that his wife was carrying his child. She knew that as Lee's friend, she shouldn't be helping Amanda keep this secret from him, but at the same time, she was also Amanda's friend and had promised not to say anything. Thankfully, she was spared answering by a voice behind her.

"Mr. Stetson?" The ER doctor said. Lee bolted from his seat and approached the doctor. "Your wife's awake and asking for you."

"What's going on? Is she okay?"

"Yes, she's fine," the other man answered. "In fact, we'll be sending her home soon."

"But what happened? If she's fine, why did she just collapse out of nowhere?"Lee asked worriedly.

"There's nothing to worry about. She just needs a little rest and some food. As I said, we're not going to keep her here. She already understands that she needs to go straight home, get some food and rest. Now, if you'll follow me."

"Okay," Lee said. "Francine, do you mind..."

"I'll keep an eye on Leah," she answered before he finished the question, knowing that Lee needed to see for himself that Amanda was okay.

"Thanks," Lee said gratefully as he followed the doctor.

As he entered the curtained area where his wife had been treated, he smiled at seeing her alert and looking happy. "Hey, Big Fella," she said.

"Hey, yourself," he said as he gingerly sat on the edge of the bed, "How you feeling?"

"Pretty silly more than anything," Amanda said sheepishly. "That's the first time ever that I ever lost my cool that much on the job. It's just when I saw you sitting there bleeding, I...Are you okay?" She gestured toward his bandaged ribcage.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It wasn't much more than a scratch. I just didn't get out of the line of fire quite fast enough and a bullet caught me just under the ribs, kinda' like what happened during the Nick Grant mess," Lee answered as he took her hand in his. "My question is are _you_ okay?"

"Fine," Amanda said. "They're letting me go home tonight. I just need to get something to eat since I haven't been able to keep much down for the last couple of days and get some decent sleep."

"Well, we did promise Leah pizza," he said with a smile. "How about we go back to your place and we'll just order delivery, maybe stop by the video store on the way and pick up a kid-friendly movie so she can have her movie too?"

"I don't think Candice would approve," Amanda said having remembered the hateful look the other woman had given her at seeing her napping with Leah.

"Well, Candice isn't in much of a position to argue," Lee said. "She was injured in the wreck. They're treating her now and with her injuries, I doubt they'll be releasing her tonight. Besides, this is my kid too and Candice has kept her from me for four years and I'd like to try to make up for lost time with her if I can. Besides, Leah has to sleep somewhere tonight and your place makes more sense since you have more room. Your mother's out for the night and the kids are with their dad."

"That sounds like a great idea. I'd like a chance to get to know her too. I mean, she is my stepdaughter, after all. You've been so good at making a solid effort to bond with the boys for me, so I'd like to do the same for you."

Lee smiled affectionately at his wife and said, "God, you're amazing." He planted a soft kiss to her lips, and then said," I don't know if I'd be so gracious if our positions were reversed."

"Sure you would. Look at how good you've been with Phillip and Jamie."

"Yeah, I'm just glad they were with their dad tonight and not involved with this whole mess," Lee said as he thought of how the events of the evening might have been an even bigger disaster if his stepsons had been at home since they didn't know what it was that they did for a living.

"Yeah, me too," Amanda agreed.

Their conversation was interrupted by a nurse entering. "Okay, Mrs. King, you're all set to go. We've got your release paperwork here. So, whenever you're ready, you can get dressed and go."

"Thanks," Amanda said.

"I should let you get dressed and see if I can't scrounge us up a ride since the wagon is now in Leatherneck's hands.

"How bad was it? There was so much going on, I didn't even get a chance to really look at it."

"Not as bad as it could have been if anyone else had been driving. You did great tonight!" he said with a proud smile.

"Thanks," she said smiling back at him.

"I'm gonna'..." he gestured to the curtain behind him.

"Okay, seeya' soon."

Lee re-entered the waiting room to find Francine no longer there and that Jonathan was now keeping Leah company at the kiddie table. He smiled at seeing her giggling. "You're silly," she said to Jonathan as he approached them.

"Hi," Lee said. "Where's Francine?"

"Oh, a doctor just came out and said Candice was awake so Francine went to visit with her. I offered to keep an eye on your little one while she was gone."

"Thanks," Lee said. "I hate to ask for yet another favor, but we could use a ride back to Amanda's place since her car got wrecked. Would you mind?"

"Not at all," Jonathan replied.

"I think I may take a look in on Candice while Amanda is getting dressed," Lee said.

"Take your time," Jonathan said. "Leah and I will be fine while you're gone."

Lee walked back through the double doors to the maze of curtained cubicles wondering which one Candice was in as he looked around. He didn't have to wonder for long as he soon heard a shrill voice, saying, "Stop it, stop it stop it." _Bingo, _he thought. That voice was unmistakably that of his ex-girlfriend.

Lee made his way toward her voice and paused as heard Francine saying, "Candice, get over yourself! Lee doesn't love you and he never did, okay! Get that through you head now!"

"Why are you being so mean," Candice wailed. "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"Whose side am I on? Mine, that's whose side I'm on! I am so damn tired of all of you right now! I'm especially tired of your poor little me attitude. Grow the hell up! You have a daughter out there who needs a mother so get your ass in gear, and start acting like her mother instead of acting like a spoiled child yourself. You are _never_ going to get what you want from Lee. He loves Amanda and that's never going to change no matter how much you want it to."

"No, you're wrong. We have a child together. That connects us for life. He'll see that that means we should be a family. He just needs a little more time to adjust to the idea," Candice stated vehemently.

"No," Lee said as he stepped through the curtain, feeling it was time to make his presence known. "It doesn't matter how much time passes, Candice, I will _never _leave Amanda. Not for anything or anyone." He then glanced at Francine and said, "Can you give us a minute?"

"Yeah, I'll...uh...I'll just go check on Amanda," Francine said as she hastily made her way toward the maze of treatment bays.

"Lee, please, at least think about what you're saying," Candice said.

"There's nothing to think about, Candice, I married Amanda because I love her with all my heart. I thought I made that clear at the park."

"So, the fact that she nearly got us all killed with her reckless driving doesn't bother you at all?" Candice said with a glower as she gestured at her plaster-covered right leg.

Lee gaped at her incredulously and said, "Is that what you think happened? I've got news for you. Amanda ran the avoidance patterns better than any twenty-year veteran in the business and that's saying something when you consider that she's only been at this for four years and has only been a full-time agent for about nine months now. Let me tell you something else, that woman has been through more crap with me, bailed me out of more jams and been there by my side doing whatever it took to keep my ass out of hot water than anyone I've ever worked with and most of that was before she had any operative training at all. She's the bravest, most inventive, most resourceful partner that I've ever had in my entire fourteen years at the agency. Other agents could stand to learn a lot from her. Not only that, but she has done all of that while running a household and raising two very rambunctious boys by herself when their father bailed on them."

"So, I suppose you expect me to be just like your precious Amanda and raise Leah by myself too," Candice said bitterly.

"No, I fully intend to be there for Leah and try to be the best dad that I can be to her, but that doesn't mean that has to go hand in hand with you and me being together. Hear this now and really hear me this time. I am married to Amanda for life, forever. Nothing that you can say or do is ever going to change that. One more thing, I don't want to hear another negative word about how she performed tonight. She saved all our asses, something that wouldn't have needed to be done if it hadn't been for someone being after you."

"So, you're saying this is my fault?"

"No, I'm not saying that, but ir was very clear to me that whoever was in that van was after you, not me or Amanda." He paused for a moment then added, "For what it's worth, you did a great job yourself tonight."

"I didn't do anything," She scoffed. "You wouldn't let me, remember?"

"That's not true, I told you that your job was to protest Leah and you did that better than I could have expected. You put yourself at risk to make sure she stayed safe," He said with a gesture to her bandaged head. "In spite of all the wreckage, that little girl came through this without a scratch on her...because of you and I'm grateful for that."

"Thanks," Candice said with a half-smile.

"Speaking of Leah, you should know that Amanda and I are taking her home to Amanda's house with us tonight."

"No," Candice said not wanting her rival for Lee's affection anywhere near her daughter.

"That wasn't a question, Candice. She's my daughter. you were hell-bent on making sure that I knew that and now that I do, I'm not letting her out of my life again. I meant what I said about being a dad to her and since you're going to be here for a while, that starts now."

"You just want to give your precious Amanda more time with her so she can worm her way into my daughter's heart." Candice sniped.

"No, that's not what this is about. Yes, I would like Amanda to get to know my daughter the way that I've gotten to know her boys, but I want to get to know her myself. Besides, being in here, you're not exactly in a position to care for her yourself. Since Amanda has the bigger place it just makes sense to take her there where she'll be comfortable."

"Of course, you would see it that way. Anything you can do to turn our daughter against me."

"That's not what's going on here and it's not up for negotiation. I'm her father and I'm taking her home with me tonight to the only place that I've ever felt at home. Are you really so insecure that you don't know that she's going to love you no matter how many new people enter her life?" When Candice didn't answer, he said, "Listen, I should get Amanda and Leah home. None of us had had dinner tonight."

"Yeah," Candice said.

"Get some rest. I'll come back by to check on you tomorrow," Lee said and without giving her a chance to reply with another snarky comment, left to go get his wife.

While Lee was lecturing Candice, Amanda was getting a lecture of her own from Francine. "You still haven't told him," Francine scolded.

"No, I haven't," Amanda said. "I didn't have a chance to. He showed up at the house with Candice, then we got chased and wrecked and now, here we are."

"Amanda, you have to tell him. He's already questioning me about our lunch yesterday and I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. He has a right to know."

"Yeah, well, he had a right to know that he had a daughter too, but your little friend didn't bother to tell him about that until four years later," Amanda fired back.

"Leave Candice out of this," Francine countered. "While I agree that she should have told him a long time ago about Leah, she has nothing to do with the fact that you're to chicken to tell him that you're pregnant. You have no right to make judgments on her for that when you're keeping the same secret from him."

Amanda sighed and said, "You're right. I just don't know how to bring up the subject. Everything's so crazy right now."

"You're going to have to find a way, Amanda."

"I know. I was thinking I might tell him on his birthday, after the party," Amanda said.

"That's be a good time to tell him and a hell of a nice birthday present for him. You'd just better damn well hope that Candice doesn't tell him first," Francine pointed out. _I'm going to have to make sure she keeps her big mouth shut, _Francine thought with a sigh realizing that she wasn't done being caught in the middle of this mess.

"Did I hear something about a birthday present?" Lee said with a mirthful grin as he entered. "Just what are you ladies up to?"

Amanda and Francine cast looks at one another and both said, "Nothing."


	20. Chapter 20

Efraim Beaman sat nervously in his boss' office. "Victor Carrerra?" He questioned feigning innocence.

"Yes, Efraim, Victor Carrerra, as in head of the Carrerra drug cartel," Billy said not fooled for a minute by Efraim's attempt to act dumb. "You paid him a visit in prison today and you used your agency credentials to get in. Now, I want to know why."

"Just trying to gather information," Efraim said thinking quickly. "I mean, I _was_ involved in the original investigation that helped put him there."

"Yes, but if I recall, I personally pulled you from that investigation after you were shot and moved you to fabrications to give you time to heal."

"I remember, Sir," Efraim replied. "But with Candice being back, I...I thought that someone needed to question him to see if there was still a threat against her."

"So, you just decided to assign yourself to that task. You've been here for almost five years and you're in charge of training our freshmen. You should know better than anyone that that's not how it works. All assignments for field agents go through me. If you have something that you think merits investigation, you come to me and _I_ decide if it's worth investigating and _I_ assign the appropriate person to investigate. What kind of example does it set for the agents you train if you go off by yourself on a job that you weren't assigned to?" How do you think it looks to the Department of Corrections when our agents abuse their security privileges?"

"I...I...I was only trying to help, Sir," Efraim stammered nervously. "Help Francine. I mean, I can tell she's under a lot of pressure with Candice being back here."

Billy chuckled slightly, having observed Efraim's numerous attempts over the years to get Francine to notice him. "Well, in the future, please wait for Francine to ask for your help before just diving on it, okay? I don't want a repeat of what happened in '82. We nearly lost you then."

"I remember," Efraim said as he placed his hand across his chest where he still bore the scars from that incident.

"For now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ground you," Billy said firmly.

"You're suspending me," Efraim exclaimed in horror.

"No, not suspending, Efraim. I'm giving you a reprieve for now, but I want you to stay here at the office and keep your assignments to working with the rookies like you're supposed to. I don't want to hear anymore about you going off half-cocked by yourself or I _will_ suspend you. Are we clear?"

"Y-y-yes, Sir," Efraim sputtered. _Damn! _

"Good," Billy said with a firm nod. "Now, it's getting late. Let's knock off for the night. I want to pay a visit to the hospital to see how my agents are doing." He rose from his seat and urged Efraim to do the same. As they walked to the door together, he said, "Make sure I don't get anymore reports from prison officials, huh?"

"Yeah," Efraim said as he eyed the files still sitting on Francine's desk. "I...Uh...do have some work to do, though." He nodded toward her desk. "I did promise Francine to help her go through the Carrerra files." He began to reach for the files that he so desperately wanted to get his hands on.

"Did Francine ask you to do that," Billy inquired.

"No, but she was so disappointed that her vacation with her fiancé' was cut short, that I offered to give her a hand."

"What did I just tell you, Efraim? Unless she asks for help, leave it alone," Billy said. "I've already got Lee, Amanda and Francine on it. They can handle it. I don't want you involved unless it's absolutely necessary. You've already been targeted by the Carrerra cartel once and we were never sure that their operation was completely shut just even after catching their kingpin. This attack on Candice tonight tells me there are still those out there who may be working on Carrerra's agenda to finish what he started."

"But you're letting Amanda work on it?"Efraim asked incredulously. "She wasn't even part of the original case and she was nearly fatally shot herself just a few months ago."

"She is Lee's partner and as such, I want her involved," Billy said sternly. "That is _my _decision, not yours. Besides, you've said yourself that she out-does everyone else in all of her classes."

"Yes she does. She's good, I admit that, but I think we both know that she's a hell of a lot more than just Lee's partner," Efraim snorted. "I'm not sure that she can act completely professionally under the circumstances." The last thing that he needed was Amanda getting her hands on those files. He knew from her coursework that she had an uncanny ability to spot things that other people overlooked.

"Be that as it may, she _is_ involved. You, on the other hand are not. Now, go on, get out of here," Billy said with a hand on Efraim's shoulder giving him a push toward the doors of the bullpen. Efraim realizing he was defeated had no choice but to comply. Billy stared after him until he was out of sight. "What are you up to," he muttered as he gathered up the files that were piled on Francine's desk, carried them into his office for safekeeping, locking the door behind him before leaving for the evening.

Thirty minutes later, Billy was walking into the ER waiting area to find Francine still there speaking to a doctor. "What's the word?"He asked her.

"I'm sorry," the doctor said. "Who are you?"

Billy removed his badge and showed it to the doctor, "William Melrose, I'm the direct supervisor of this agent and the three who were brought in here tonight. What can you tell me about their conditions?"

"Well, Mr. Stetson only had a minor injury from being grazed by a bullet, while his...partner really wasn't injured at all. She simply fainted as a result of malnutrition combined with stress and fatigue. Are you aware of..." the doctor hesitated as the woman had insisted that he not share the details of her condition with her husband, as she wanted to tell him herself.

Billy nodded and said, "Yes, I know. She's pregnant." When Francine looked at him in surprise, he said to her, "No, Francine, Amanda didn't tell me. I'm a father. I figured it out on my own." He then turned to the doctor and said, "Go on."

"I have to tell you that I'm a little concerned for her. I thought you spooks didn't allow pregnant agents on field assignments due to the hazardous nature of your work," the doctor said casting an accusing look at Billy. "The mental stress alone could be detrimental to her pregnancy."

"I know," Billy said. "She wasn't on a field assignment. I have her assigned to simply doing investigative work in the office."

"Sometimes, the bad guys just don't care if agents are on field assignments or not," Francine said dryly appalled at the doctor's insinuation that Billy would have knowingly put a pregnant agent in the line of fire.

Billy held up a hand to Francine to silence her before she could begin one of her acid diatribes and said, "Is she okay?"

"For now, it's nothing that a good meal and a good night's rest won't cure. She's already been released."

"Jonathan took them home to her place," Francine told him.

"Good," Billy said breathing a sigh of relief. He'd have hated to see Amanda lose the baby without Lee ever knowing that there was a baby. He had a feeling that if Amanda ever got up the nerve to tell him about it, he would be thrilled beyond words at finding out he was going to be a father, much more so than finding out that he already had a child with a woman he barely cared about.

"And the other agent," Billy asked.

"She's got a mild concussion, some contusions from flying debris and her right leg was broken during the crash. We're going to keep her here for a couple of days until we're sure that there's no serious head trauma. We've moved her to her own room and have her scheduled for a CAT scan first thing in the morning."

"Thank you for the information," Billy said. As the doctor left, he noticed Francine still looking tense and said, "How are you holding up?"

"Me?"Francine said feigning nonchalance. "I'm not the one who was involved in all of this. I'm fine."

"Francine, this is me you're talking to. How long have you worked for me now? I know you better than that."

Francine let out a deep sigh. "It's rough," she admitted as she sank down into the nearest chair. "I am so overwhelmed right now. Candice is pissed at me because she heard about the thing Lee and I had a few years ago from Amanda and not me. Amanda's pissed at me because I keep telling her that she need to come clean with Lee and Lee is pissed at me because he knows that I know that there's something Amanda's not telling him but she swore me to secrecy."

Billy sat next to her and said, "Okay, you've just told me how they're all feeling, but what about you? What are _you_ feeling about al this?"

"Me? I'm fine," she lied.

"Francine..."Billy said in a warning tone.

At seeing her boss' stern piercing glare, she rose to her feet and said, "Okay, I'm not fine. I'm pissed, okay! Furious, even! I'm so mad at Candice for never letting me know she was alive1 I grieved for her, cried for her, mourned at her memorial service and shut myself off just to shut out the pain to the point that it cost me my wedding day and all this time, she was out there only pretending to be dead! Then there's Amanda. I was just to wrap my hands around her neck and choke the life out of her for what she's done! She's not only keeping this secret from Lee, but she kept this huge secret from me too about her marriage to him! She then has the nerve to lecture me about keeping secrets when she brazenly lied to me in telling me that she ended things with him when the whole time, they were planning to run off and elope! And I, a trained agent was dumb enough to buy it and not spot all the little signs of what was really going on even though they were obvious! Then there's Lee, a man that I've been through a lot of shit with over the last seven years. A man I thought was my friend and he played right into it, letting me think that Amanda dumped him when the whole time, he was in this serious life-altering relationship, playing part-time daddy to her kids and he let me think that he was still the same old devil-may-care, play-the-field Scarecrow just out for a good time! All this time he was married. God, married. I can't even wrap my head around it! Lee Stetson, married! It just boggles the mind! Then there's his sheer stupidity at not figuring out what's going on with Amanda after he sat there for an hour listening to Candice drone on about her pregnancy symptoms, yet he can't seem to put two and two together and figure out that that's what's going on with Amanda. I mean, how damn dense can he be? If he's sleeping with her, he has to know that it's a possibility! How he can be so observant when it comes to chasing bad guys, yet be so blind when it comes to personal stuff is beyond me! If he'd just use his damn head, he'd figure it out, but no! Instead, he'd rather grill me! I'm stuck smack in the middle of all this crap that I have no desire to be stuck in the middle of and I swear to God, if this keeps up, I'm just going to pull out my gun and shoot all three of them!"

Billy laughed and said, "I think you've been around Amanda too long. Her penchant for rambling has started to rub off on you."

Francine couldn't help but laugh and said, "I guess it has, but don't you ever tell her that. I wouldn't want her thinking that she's had any kind of influence on me."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Billy said with a good-natured chuckle. "Listen, you've done all you can here for tonight. Candice is in good hands here. I've got a team watching the hospital and another watching Amanda's house. You should get home to your fiancé' and work on getting you to that wedding day that you missed out on and I should get home to my wife."

"Yeah," Francine said as she extended a hand to her boss to help him up from his seat.

"Oh, by the way, this might help ease your frustration a little," Billy said as he pulled the box of chocolates from inside his jacket and handed it to her with a mirthful grin knowing his agent's passion for chocolate that she thought no one knew about. "You left it on your desk."

"Thanks," Francine said with a warm smile. "I should go home and properly thank Jonathan for the thoughtful gift." Her agitation subsided a little at the thought of all the ways she could show him her appreciation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lee and Amanda sat cuddled on the couch; the remnants of an extra-pepperoni pizza on the coffee table, Leah sprawled on the floor with a throw pillow enraptured by two little mice in the animated movie on the screen. Lee smiled at his wife. "This was a great idea you had for a movie. Look at her," he said with a nod toward his daughter. "She can't take her eyes off it."

"Well, I just figured that since I already have a lot of kid-friendly movies, that we'd save some time by just coming here instead of renting one. I recorded this for the boys several years ago when it first aired on TV. They loved _The Rescuers_ when they were little, though they've kind of gotten too old for it now," she said a hint of nostalgia mixed with a little sadness in her voice. "I just never could bring myself to part with these old tapes. They remind me of when my boys were that little."

Lee sat lost in thought for a moment, then took her hands in his and said, "You know something. I've been thinking a lot lately and I don't know how you feel about it because we never really discussed it, but I was thinking that maybe when things calm down a little and we get everything all out in the open..." Lee hesitated unsure of what her reaction would be.

"Yes?" she said. Lee hesitated a moment longer until Amanda released his hand, softly caressed his face and said, "Sweetheart, if you've got something on your mind, you can tell me, no matter what it is."

He took a deep breath while trying to compose his thoughts. When he finally spoke again, his words all came out in a rush. "Well, I was thinking that maybe we should talk about having a kid of our own, you know you and me. I mean, I know that your boys are half-grown and that you may not be interested in having another kid, and I know that you would be the one who would have to do all the hard work, but if you think about it, that might be just what this family needs. You and me having a baby together would be something that would tie everybody together, you know, because our baby would be a sibling to all three of them. That would be something they'd all share and could, I don't know, maybe it would even help them all bond, help us all be a real family. I don't know, does that sound stupid to you? It probably sounds stupid to you, right?"

"No, Lee, I don't think it sounds stupid at all," Amanda said. "In fact, I think you're right. Having a sibling that they share probably would help them all bond."

"Yeah?" Lee said with a hopeful smile at the thought that his wife might be willing to have his baby.

"Yeah." Amanda hedged for a moment as she thought about the fact that Lee had just given her the perfect opportunity to give him her news. She just still didn't know if the timing was right with him just having found out today that he already had a child. Francine's words at the hospital about Candice having the potential to ruin the surprise kept coming back to haunt her. _Just do it, Amanda, _she scolded herself. _What's the worst that could happen when he just said he wanted a baby? _"Actually, now that you mention it, I never did get a chance to talk to you about what I wanted to talk to you about. It's sort of related." She took a deep breath, clasped her hands with his again and began, "Lee, Sweetheart, I'm-"

Amanda's words were cut off by Leah squealing in delight as she scrambled from her place on the floor and launched herself at them. "That was the bestest movie ever," she said in delight as she hugged Amanda and Lee. "Penny got a mommy and daddy at the end when she didn't have one and she gets to have a real family, just like me."

"Yes, she does," Amanda said warmly as she pulled her stepdaughter into her lap wrapping an arm around her. "And she was a very brave little girl, just like you."

"Me?"Leah said with a curious expression. "You think I'm brave?"

"Yes, Leah. When those mean men were chasing us, you were so brave even though it was very scary."

Leah looked at Lee for confirmation. "Daddy, do you think I'm brave too?"

"Absolutely, Princess. You stayed put and didn't run off even though I know you were very scared. That was very brave."

"But how can you be scared and brave at the same time?" Leah asked with a quizzical look at Lee, then at Amanda.

"Sweetie, being brave doesn't mean that you don't' get scared," Amanda explained. "It just means that even though you're scared, you still keep on going and muddling through."

"Amanda's right," Lee concurred. "And your stepmom here is one of the bravest people that I know."

"Stepmom?"Leah asked. "What does that mean?"

Lee looked at Amanda in alarm, not sure how to explain the concept to a four-year-old. Amanda gave him a nod of encouragement. He took a deep breath and said, "You remember when I told you that Amanda's my wife?" Leah nodded. "Okay, well since she's my wife and I'm your dad that makes her your stepmom, just like I'm a stepdad to her little boys because I'm her husband and she's their mom."

"So, she's like another Mommy?"Leah said.

"Sort of," Lee said.

"But I already have a mommy," Leah protested.

"Yes, you do," Amanda confirmed as she stroked her blond head. "And she'll always be your mommy, but me being your stepmom means that you just have one more parent to love you, just like your daddy being a stepdad to my boys means that they have one more person to love them. Guess what else that means?"

"What?" Leah said excitedly.

"That also means that my boys are your stepbrothers," Amanda said. "So, that's two more people to love you and for you to love."

"I gots brothers?"Leah said gleefully.

"You _have_ brothers," Lee corrected. "And yes. I know you haven't met them yet, but you will soon. They're with their dad right now."

"I want to meet my brothers now," Leah said impatiently. "I always wanted to have brothers and sisters.

"Not right now," Amanda said. "But soon, I promise." At seeing her excitement at learning she had stepbrothers, she couldn't help but wonder how Leah would respond to the news that she was also going to be a big sister in just a few short months, but since Lee didn't yet know, now was definitely not that time to bring it up. "Listen, kiddo, it's getting late and we should get you to bed," she said in an effort to change the subject.


	21. Chapter 21

Candice Davenport silently stewed in her hospital room as she reflected back on Lee's words to her about his wife. "Wife," she muttered. She'd never imagined that she'd come back to find the man she loved married to someone else. It just didn't seem possible. She knew his history with women. Deep down she also knew that Francine had been right all along years ago when she'd told her not to get too attached to him. But how are you supposed to stop yourself from falling in love, especially with a man as charming as Lee Stetson, a man who knew how to romance a woman, knew how to make her feel as if she were the only woman in the world? She sighed as she thought about how much time had been lost, wondered if things would be different if she'd told him from day one that she was carrying his child. She thought back to the last fight they'd had and how they'd argued because the waitress at the restaurant they'd been dining at had flirted shamelessly with him and rather than stopping her, he'd flirted back.

**April 1982**

_Candice stormed out of the restaurant in a huff, Lee following behind her quickly catching up to her, grabbing her arm and spinning her around to face him. "Just what the hell is your problem?"He demanded._

_"My problem, are you serious? Did you see yourself in there with that waitress?"She yelled._

_"What's the big deal?"Lee said nonchalantly._

_"The big deal? The big deal is that I'm the one you're supposed to be with, not some cheap waitress who's throwing herself at you like some dime-store hooker."_

_"You're getting awfully bent about a little harmless flirting," Lee argued. "It's not as if I was asking her to go home with me! She was being friendly so I was just being friendly back!"_

_"A little __**too **__friendly if you ask me, especially when I'm supposed to be your girlfriend!"_

_"My girlfriend? Is that what you think you are? I thought we both knew that we were just having a good time together!"_

_"Is that all this is to you?" Candice said as tears formed in her eyes._

_"What else is it supposed to be? We work in a job where either one of us might be shipped off to Timbuktu at any time or even get killed in the line of duty. Why get attached to somebody who may not even be in your life tomorrow?"He fired back angrily. "Besides, I don't recall ever putting a ring on your finger!'_

That's exactly the problem, _she thought bitterly. She'd had this whole romantic evening set up and had planned to tell him tonight that he was going to be a father, but that was ruined now. "God, you're an asshole!" she exclaimed. Why couldn't he see what was right in front of his face, how much she loved him, how she'd do anything for him?_

_"Well, if I'm such an asshole, then what the hell are you doing with me?"_

_"You're right; I don't know what the hell I was thinking!"She shouted as she marched off before he could see the tears that had formed in her eyes at his callousness. She had this amazing news to share with him and he couldn't keep his attention on her for more than two minutes at a time. _

_"Good!" She heard him shout after her. "Go! Have a nice life!" _

_As she walked down the street, her arms wrapped around herself, she let the tears fall as she made her way to the corner and hailed a cab, hoping against hope that he'd come after her so that they could talk like normal people._

As she lay in her hospital bed, Candice felt tears silently slipping down her cheeks as relived that painful memory. She should have known even then that she'd never have what she really wanted with Lee, baby or not. She thought back to all the years she'd been on the run, move from place to place to keep their daughter safe so that she could return and one day have a real family life. She cringed as she thought of all the times that she'd told Leah that she had a daddy out there who would love her instantly and that they would all be one big happy family. She wondered guiltily if sharing her ideal of the perfect family life had done irreparable harm to her young daughter's psyche.

She let out a deep sigh wondering what was going on with her daughter now. She reflected on Lee's words at the park when he'd told her how Amanda had raised her boys by herself and what a protective mother she was to them, how she'd raised them by herself. She wondered with that kind of mothering experience, just what kind of influence she would have on her impressionable child. She decided that she had to find out. She reached for the crutches that were propped up against the bedside table, bracing herself against them as she hobbled to gather up her things.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lee had gone out to his car to retrieve the overnight bag he always kept packed in case of an emergency while Amanda had helped Leah take her hair down and brush it out before helping her to get dressed in her frilly pink nightgown in the hall bathroom. "Is pink your favorite color," she asked her stepdaughter grateful that Jonathan had thought to stop by Francine's place to get some of Leah's things.

"Oh, yes," Leah said as she stifled a yawn.

"Goodness, that's a big yawn," Amanda said as she reached for Leah's hand. "We'd better get you tucked in so you can get some sleep and we'll go see your mommy first thing in the morning, okay?"

"Okay," Leah said as she took Amanda's offered hand.

"Come with me. You can sleep in my boys' room," Amanda said holding her stepdaughter's smaller hand in hers as she led her down the hall just as Lee entered the hallway with his bag from downstairs.

Lee smiled as he saw his wife and daughter together. "All ready for bed, Princess?" He said.

"Yes, Daddy," Leah answered.

"Good," He answered. "I'll be in there in a minute," he said to Amanda indicating the bag in his hand with a gesture to her bedroom.

"Okay," Amanda said as she and Leah entered the boys' room while Lee headed down the hall. "Here you go, Kiddo."

"This is my brothers' room?"Leah asked.

"Sure is," Amanda said. "That's Phillip's side of the room over there and this one is Jamie's"

"They won't be mad if I sleep in here?" she asked nervously.

"Mm-mm, not a bit," Amanda said as she knelt to get eye level with her stepdaughter. Of course she knew they could hardly be mad when they didn't know yet that Leah even existed. She wasn't sure exactly how she was going to break that particular piece of news to them.

"Can I sleep in that one?"Leah inquired as she pointed to Jamie's bed.

"Sure, you can," Amanda said as she rose and helped Leah get tucked in under the superman bedding just as Lee stepped into the room, the overstuffed panda under his arm. "Do you like Superman?"

Leah nodded. "I like the superfriends," she answered, "but I like Wonder Woman best of all."

"Wonder Woman, huh?"Lee said with a smile.

Leah nodded and said, "Just like 'Manda."

"Me? You think I'm like Wonder Woman?" Amanda asked her with a chuckle.

Leah nodded again and said, "'Cause you have pretty brown hair and 'cause you drove the car so fast to get away from the bad guys like Wonder Woman does in her 'visible jet."

"That's _in_visible jet," Amanda said with a laugh. "And I assure you I'm no Wonder Woman. I'm just a normal woman."

"Daddy, isn't 'Manda just like Wonder Woman?" Leah asked Lee.

"She sure is, Princess," he said as he sat on the edge of the bed and clasped her tiny hand.

"Lee, don't encourage her,' Amanda protested. "I don't want her thinking-"

Lee held up a hand so silence his wife and turned his attention back to his daughter. "The difference is that her superpower is taking care of people."

"Like me?"

"Yes, Leah, just like you," Lee answered, "And me too.'Manda takes good care of me and her boys and her mom and everybody around her."

"Auntie Francine too?"

"Only when Auntie Francine admits that she needs taking care of," Lee said with a laugh as he tucked the panda in bed with her. "Listen, it's about time for you to get some sleep, okay?" he said as he brushed a stray curl out of her face.

"Okay, Daddy," Leah said as she cuddled the panda tightly. ""Night"

"Good-night," he said as he leaned in and kissed her lightly on the head before taking his wife's hand, glancing for just a moment at his daughter with a smile that the panda was as big as she was before turning out the light and walking hand in hand with Amanda toward her room.

"Well, your first full day as a dad didn't go too badly," Amanda said as they entered the bedroom.

"It could have been a hell of a lot worse if I hadn't had you there by my side," Lee replied as he softly caressed her face. "You're such a natural a being a mom." He kissed her tenderly. "That's why it would mean so much to me if you...I mean, if we..." He broke off, his voice having become choked with emotion, finding that he couldn't finish his thought. Instead, he decided to show her what was on his mind as he pulled her into her arms and kissed her soundly.

Amanda responded at first loving the feel of his kisses, his arms around her, but then pulled back abruptly not wanting to be distracted again from telling him her news. "Lee, stop, I have something that I have to talk to you about. It's about what we were talking about earlier, about you and me having a baby together."

"I thought you were okay with the idea," Lee said his face falling at the seriousness of the look on her face.

"I am. I'm very okay with the idea. Nothing would make me happier and that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I mean, it's going to be a big change. We're going to have to get a bigger house, I won't be able to be out in the field with you anymore and the boys and my mother doesn't even know yet that we're married so it's...it's compli-." Amanda's words were cut off by her husband's lips once again descending on hers his arms sliding down her back grasping her bottom to pull her closer as he probed her mouth with his own. Amanda couldn't help the responses of her body at his nearness, his kisses giving her a head sensation that she never tired of. She linked her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a deeper kiss as they began to undress each other while he backed her toward the bed until they both toppled onto it.

"Ow," Lee said with a wince.

"We should stop," Amanda said. "You're injured."

"No, it's not any worse than it was on our wedding night and we managed to work around it just fine then, didn't we?' he said with an impish grin as he nuzzled her neck.

"Yes, we sure did," Amanda said with a smile as she recalled how inventive they'd gotten on their wedding night to avoid hurting him, both of them having it in their minds that with as much as they'd gone through to get there, nothing was going to stop them from making love on their wedding night.

Lee kissed his wife softly and said, "Well, we proved then that we know how to get a little creative when we need to." He kissed her again. "I was just thinking that if we're going to work on expanding our family, we should start tonight." He lowered his lips to her neck nuzzling the sensitive pulse point that he knew always got to her.

Amanda sighed and said, "Lee, we need to talk about this."

"No more talking," he said as he captured her lips again with his own causing all rational thought to fly out the window.

Amanda gave in, losing herself in her husband's touch, a touch that always set her on fire, "We'll talk later," she gasped out.

As they lay contentedly wrapped up in each other post-lovemaking, "I love you," Lee whispered sleepily.

"I love you too," Amanda replied with a satisfied smile as she snuggled deeper into his arms, resting her head against his shoulder her arm draped across the solid wall of his chest. "Lee?"she said tentatively

"Mmm?' he murmured.

"Lee, about that talk. Sweetheart, there's been something that I found out that I've been trying to figure out how to tell you for two days now. I got some amazing news when I had my annual agency physical and if I don't tell you now, it's going to be all over the agency before I get to because you and I both know that secrets don't stay secret for very long there, at least not personal secrets. Now, I was hesitant to tell you because we never talked about it except in kind of an abstract, what-if way," Amanda began her unsteady nerves causing her to babble. "I mean, well, we've talked about it now. You said tonight that you wanted us to try to have a baby and, well, what I've been trying to tell you is that we don't need to _try_ to have a baby. I was trying to tell you tonight when we were watching the movie, but then Leah was so excited about the movie that I just couldn't break her little heart by interrupting her enthusiasm with something this big. Then I tried to tell you again when we were alone, but then you got me all distracted with those damn bedroom eyes of yours and the way that you were kissing me and it was clear that you wanted to make love, I mean, not that I didn't. I love the way we make love, but the point is that got me distracted from my point again. I've been trying to figure out a way to say this and I've decided that the best thing is to just come right out and say it." She paused for a moment, took a deep breath and said, "Lee, I'm pregnant." When he was silent, she said, "Lee, I said we're having a baby. Lee, did you hear me?"

"Mm-hm, baby," was his response as he tightened his arms around her.

"Lee?" Amanda asked nervously. "Sweetheart, are you happy about this?"

"Happy," he murmured.

Amanda shifted her position just enough to look at his face and found that he'd fallen asleep. She sighed wondering just how much of what she'd told him had registered in his sleep-addled mind. _Damn,_ she thought with another sigh. _Maybe I should just try again in the morning when he's more awake. _

Lee awoke an hour later, startled out of a pleasant dream in which he'd heard his wife telling him that they were having a baby. He shook his head slightly, trying to figure out exactly what had roused him from his sleep. He glanced at his wife who was sound asleep, cradled against him. He sighed contentedly thinking that he could definitely get used to this on a regular basis and found himself anxious for Saturday's party when they would be revealing all their secrets to their family so that they could live out in the open as they should have been all along. He smiled at that thought, brushed a soft kiss to his wife's lips, and pulled her more tightly to him.

His actions had caused Amanda to stir. She opened her eyes, looked up at him, smiled and said, "Hi."

"Hi, yourself," he replied as he kissed her tenderly. "Sorry if I woke you."

"No, it's okay. You can wake me like that anytime," she replied as she kissed him.

'Yeah?" he said with a smile as he rolled them both to their sides to face each other.

"Yeah," she said as she wrapped her arms around him to pull him in for another searing kiss, hooking one leg across his hips as her desire for him rose again.

He pulled back from their kiss for a moment, brushed her hair from her face and said with a grin, "So, you ready for round two?"

"It seems that you are," she fired back as she pulled him closer melting into yet another fiery kiss.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Candice, after a lot of struggling on her crutches, avoiding the agency guard dogs outside by creeping through a neighbor's back yard, had finally managed to make it up the stairs of the King house pausing as she reached the landing to catch her breath, sweating profusely, her head and her broken leg both throbbing. She wasn't about to let the pain deter her from her goal of finding her child and getting her out of the clutches of the woman who's stolen her dreams from her. She glanced around to get her bearings while she tried to figure out which room her daughter would be in as she didn't know the house very well. Directly across the hall from her she could see was a bathroom and she knew that to her left toward the front of the house was Amanda's bedroom. She remembered that there had been another room next to hers. She peered in the other direction and noticed a closed door there. Surely if they were sleeping in Amanda's room, Leah wouldn't' be there. If Amanda were the mother that she said she was, she should want to keep Leah closer than that to keep an eye on her. That's what she herself would do and had always done to keep her safe. With not knowing who had tried to kill her and who might still be out there, she never wanted her little girl out of her sight. "She must be this way," she said softly as she slowly and cautiously made her way to the rooms to her left. As she approached the closed door, she couldn't help but hear the sounds coming from the slightly ajar door of Amanda's room. She pushed it open further, leaned on the doorframe, peered inside and gasped at what she saw, the clothing scattered on the floor and Lee locked in his wife's arms hearing him whispering words of love to her. "Oh my God," she exclaimed startling the couple.


	22. Chapter 22

While Lee and Amanda were tucking Leah into bed, Francine was finally able to relax for the first time all day cuddled on her couch with her fiancé' while he massaged her tense neck and shoulders. She sighed in contentment as she glanced at the remnants of the carryout dinner he'd brought home for her after dropping off Lee, Amanda and Leah. "Mmm, that feels wonderful," she said closing her eyes and leaning into his touch. "You have been such a godsend today. Looking after Leah, my favorite chocolates, dinner from my favorite restaurant, and now this. What are you up to?"

"Me? Nothing," Jonathan said as he brushed a soft kiss to her neck. "Just looking after my girl. The way I look at it, I have a lot to make up for after leaving the way I did. Just consider all this a down payment toward making it up to you. Besides, I know how much you love lobster ravioli."

"It's my favorite. I can't believe you remembered," she said as she turned to face him and kissed him lightly.

He took her hands in his and said, "Not a day went by in the five years that we were apart, that you weren't on my mind. I never stopped loving you."

"i never stopped loving you either," She admitted. "Oh, believe me I tried to tell myself that I did, but if you could have seen my reaction when I answered the phone three weeks ago and you were on the other end..."

"The same way that you tried to pretend that you were over losing Candice?"He questioned the old pain surfacing in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry that I shut you out of all that. I...I just never leaned on anyone for anything, always told myself that i was too independent to need that kind of comfort from anyone."

He took his hand in hers and said, "I'm always here for whatever you need and I'm not going anywhere ever again."

"I know," she said as she lovingly stroked his face. "I want you to know that you don't have anything to make up to be for. One thing having Candice back has taught me is that the past is the past and that's where it needs to stay. What I want now is just to focus on our future."

"I'm glad to hear you say that," He said with a mischievous grin, "because I have another surprise for you tonight."

"Another surprise?" she said her eyes widening. "You are just full of surprises today, aren't you?"

"You're not the only one who can keep secrets," He teased as he reached into his pocket. Francine gasped, her eyes filling with happy tears, as she took in the sight of the ring box in his hand. He opened it and held it out for her to see. "I thought it was time we made it official. Having Candice back and seeing everything that it's doing to Lee and Amanda has made me realize that life is too short to waste any more time." He then knelt before her and said, "Francine Desmond, will you marry me, for real this time?"

"Yes," She said in a shaky voice as the man she loved slipped the diamond ring on her finger. She admired it for a moment before pulling him to her and kissing him soundly. "But we are not planning the whole big wedding thing the way we did the last time. I'm not giving you a chance to get away again."

He laughed and said, "No, we're not," he agreed as he sat back next to her on the couch still holding her hand. "I think your friends were onto something when they eloped."

Francine laughed and said, "You may be right." She glanced again down at the sparkling diamond. "This is a new ring."

"A new ring for a new start," Jonathan said. "Besides, as mad at me as you must have been five years ago, I figured you'd have had the old one melted down into scrap."

"No, I still have it, in my wall safe. You should know me better than that. I would never get rid of a good diamond." She stared at the ring thoughtfully and a thought occurred to her as she did. "This is beautiful, but how can you possibly afford it. I mean, your business..."

'Is done," Jonathan answered.

"Then you really shouldn't have done this," Francine said worriedly.

"No, I should have done this a long time ago. Don't worry about me and my finances. I'm okay. I have one more surprise for you. I actually wanted to talk to you about it last night, give you the ring last night, but then Candice..."

"Candice showed up and ruined everything," Francine said bitterly. "She seems to have a knack for that." She thought back to Amanda's frustration this morning that Candice had shown up right when she was about to tell Lee that she was pregnant.

"Can we stay on topic here, Honey?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry. Just..."

"Rough day, I know, but that doesn't mean we should let that ruin our lives. What I wanted to tell you is that I have a new job starting after this vacation is over. I sold off what assets I had left from my business to get me through until then."

"New job?"She questioned. "Where?'

"Believe it or not, IFF," he answered.

"What," she said in surprise. "Jonathan, no. You know what IFF really is now, after...you know...what happened a couple of weeks ago."

"I know, I knew before then when I did my work with the CIA. Those two things are what actually prompted Billy to offer me the job. After my debriefing, he said that he was so impressed by the way I kept my cool during that whole thing with Brody and the work I did for the CIA, he thought I'd be an asset to the agency. Plus, I think he thought he'd be able to keep an eye on me to make sure I don't skip out on you again."

Francine chuckled at that and thought that was such a Billy thing to do as she recalled the day he'd hired Amanda to keep Lee in line and his instinct had paid off in spades. "So, about this work you did for the CIA..."

"Francine, you should know better than anyone that I can't discuss that with you."

"I know," she said then laughed and added, "But it was worth a shot. While we're on the subject, you know that there are things about my job that I'm always going to have to keep from you. I mean, even if you're working there, I can't tell you everything."

"I know and I accept that. Just promise me one thing," he said.

"What's that?"

"Don't keep personal secrets from me like you did before."

"I promise. You know this whole thing with Candice has got me thinking that you leaving before was just as much my fault as it was yours. I didn't share things with you that I should have. I held a part of myself back from you..."

Jonathan silenced her with a finger to her lips and said, "Stop. Let's not rehash the past. Like you already said, the past is the past. I think we've both realized that it takes both of us to make this work, to have a future together." He took her left hand in his fingering the diamond he'd just placed there. "This is a symbol of that future that I want with you." He then leaned in and kissed her.

Francine ran her hands through his hair. "You know, I should really properly thank you for everything you've done for me today and we really should properly celebrate making our engagement official." She rose and reached for his hand.

"I couldn't agree more," he said as they walked hand in hand to the bedroom.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Oh My God," Candice exclaimed startling the couple.

"Shit," Lee swore as he scrambled to make sure that he and his wife were covered by the bedding. He glared at Candice who still stood open-mouthed in the doorway and growled, "Get the hell out of here."

Candice hobbled on her crutches out into the hall starting slightly as the door was slammed forcefully behind her. She closed her eyes against the pain she felt, both physical and emotional. She'd seen the way that the man she loved had been with his wife, the way he never took his eyes off hers, the tender words he spoke to her and felt tears sliding down her face again. This was not at all what she'd expected when she'd come here. Her only goal had been to find her daughter. She'd never expected to see _that. _Her heart broke as she thought of the fact that Lee had never shown her that kind of tenderness. Sure, they'd have their wild nights together, but in seeing him with Amanda; she realized that he'd never truly made love to her. As she heard the door open behind her, she hastily wiped her tears away with one hand while trying to balance herself on her crutches. She'd be damned if she'd let that woman see her weakness. She turned awkwardly wincing in pain as she did so, surprised to find herself face to face with Lee, not Amanda, a look of pure fury on his face.

"Okay, Candice, Just what the hell are you doing here and how the hell did you get out of the hospital and into this house with all the agency guards both places?'

Candice scoffed and said, "I've been hiding for five years. Do you think in that time that I haven't learned how not to be seen when I don't want to be? And just what the hell do you think _you're_ doing fucking _her_ while our daughter is in the next room?"

"Okay, first of all, Leah is _not_ in the next room, she's down the hall in Phillip and Jamie's room and second of all, I'm not about to apologize to you for making love to my wife, especially when we're trying to have a kid or our own!"

"Lee, you're shouting. You're gonna' wake Leah," Amanda said as she exited the bedroom now clad in her robe. She slipped one arm around her husband glancing at him for a moment a little thrown by his comment about trying to have a baby. It clearly hadn't registered that she'd told him that they were already having a baby. She shook her head deciding that she'd deal with that another time, then turned her attention to Candice and said, "How did you get in here? I know for a fact that I locked all the doors before we went to bed, even the deadbolts."

"I do know how to pick a lock," Candice said with a sneer at Amanda. Given Lee's comment, clearly she still hadn't told him that she was pregnant. Maybe she wasn't pregnant at all and had only said she was to get to her. "I _am_ a trained agent, after all."

"So, you just decided to break in," Lee said hotly.

"I came for my daughter. I told you that I didn't want her here and I meant it," Candice said. "I'm her mother and I have a right to decide what happens to her."

"Yeah, well, I'm her father and I have a right to have some say in that too, a right that you've deprived me of for the last four years," Lee retorted. "How exactly did you plan to take care of her in your state? Look at you, you can barely stand."

"Lee, we should let her get off her feet," Amanda said pitying the other woman as it was obvious that she was in pain. "She really should be in the hospital where she can get the care she needs, but it's so late tonight, she should stay here. Then she can keep an eye on Leah and still be safe with the agency team outside."

Lee glanced at her in surprise. Here was this woman from his past invading her home and she was still worried about her health and safety. "God, you're amazing," he said as he planted a kiss to the top of her head. "I guess we could put her in Phillip's bed so she can be close to Leah."

"No," Amanda said with a shake of her head. "She won't be comfortable there, not in a twin bed, not with that cast. We should put her in mother's room. She won't be home for a couple of days anyway. She told me on the phone earlier that since I was going to be with you, and the boys are with Joe, she'd take the time to spend a few days with Captain Curt."

Lee ran a hand through his sleep-tousled hair and said, "Yeah, you're probably right."

"I'm standing right here," Candice said. "And I'm _not_ staying here in her house. You can just forget that idea."

"Then you're going back to the hospital right now," Lee said, "And this time, I'll make sure there are guards right outside your door so you can't take off again. I may not be willing to fulfill your dream of a happy family life, but you're still the mother of my child and I'm not about to let you get killed. If you got attacked again, you're in no condition to defend yourself, so it's here or the hospital, take your pick."

Before Candice could answer, Leah's voice cried out, "Daddy!" from the boys room.

"Leah?" Candice said as she struggled to get herself turned around, but Lee stopped her.

"Let me," Lee said.

"She's my daughter," Candice protested.

"And mine," Lee said. "Besides, she's calling for me, not you." Without giving her a chance to argue, he strode purposefully down the hall.

"Come on," Amanda said placing a hand on Candice's back as she guided her toward her mother's room. "Let's get you settled."

"Why are you doing this?" Candice said. "I don't get it. You must hate me."

"No, I don't," Amanda said as she busied herself in pulling the covers back on the bed. "I don't know you well enough to hate you. I know you're heartbroken. You had this idea that because you and Lee have a child together that you'd live happily ever after. It didn't work out that way and I feel bad for you..."

"Don't," Candice snapped. "I don't want your pity."

"It's not pity," Amanda said turning toward her. "It's more like empathy because I've been there. I'm a single mom myself, remember?"

"Not anymore, you're not," Candice said with a nod at the rings on her finger.

"No, I guess I'm not," Amanda replied with a smile. "It's weird. It's been four months since our wedding day and sometimes it still doesn't feel like we're married because we've had to sneak around so much."

"That's the same thing Lee said."

"Huh," Amanda said. She then glanced at the bed and said, "Come on, Candice, you should get off that leg." Candice nodded, the pain getting to her and allowed Amanda to help her sit on the side of the bed. "I should get you another pillow to prop that bad leg up on." She quickly made her way out into the linen closet in the hall then returned with the pillow to find Candice was struggling to get out of her coat.

"I...uh...I could use a hand. If you wouldn't mind that is," Candice said weakly hating that she had to resort to asking Amanda for help.

"Of course," Amanda replied as she set the pillow down long enough to help her out of her coat. She chuckled a little at seeing that she was still wearing the hospital gown underneath it.

"What," Candice said at Amanda's laughter. "It's not like I could put my pants back on, not with the cast."

"Oh, it's not that. I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing at you, really. I was just thinking that seeing you with just the coat and the hospital gown reminded me of the day that I met Lee."

"You didn't meet him at the agency," Candice questioned.

"No, we met at the train station." As she helped Candice get settled into bed she related the story of how she'd left the house in her nightgown and had almost literally run into Lee at the train station. She finished her tale, then said, "I had only been divorced for a year and I was in this dead-end relationship. You don't really want to hear all this."

"No," Candice admitted, "But there is something that I would like to know."

"What's that," Amanda said as she moved to the end of the bed to help Candice get her broken leg propped up.

"You and your ex have two kids together and yet you still got divorced. Didn't you fight to keep your family together?"

Amanda bit her lip as she thought of how to answer. "Yes, I fought for my family, for my marriage, I fought so hard that there were days that I thought it would break me. In the end though, I had to do what was best for my children. Their father and I weren't happy together anymore and all the fighting that we were doing on the rare occasions that he was home was making them just as miserable as it was making us."

"Maybe you should have fought harder," Candice said softly."For the sake of your children, I mean."

"I didn't have any fight left in me at that point. Besides, there's a big difference between you and me. I would _never_ use my children as a bargaining chip to hang onto a man. My boys were much better off after the divorce. Joe was gone all the time anyway with his job. When he came back for visits afterwards, it was a lot easier on the boys because we weren't fighting anymore having both accepted that it was over between us. Since then, we've developed a great friendship in spite of the fact that we're both remarried." It occurred to her that she was finalizing her divorce right around the time Candice would have been giving birth to Leah.

"So, your ex knows about you and Lee being married?"

"Yeah, he does. He was the only one here in DC that we told until I told Francine yesterday. We felt he should know since he's the only one who knows what we do for a living and because he's the father of my children. We thought he should know in case something happened to one of us. Lee's uncle knows too, but he doesn't live here."

"And your ex has just kept your secret for you?" Candice thought that they must have forged an incredible friendship for him to be willing to do something like that for her. She thought back to Lee's words to her at the park and how if she could stop being vengeful, they might have a shot at being friends in the future.

"Yeah, he has." Amanda bit down on her lip again, lightly stroked her abdomen and said, "Speaking of secrets, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't say anything to Lee about my pregnancy. That's the kind of news that should come from me. I keep trying to tell him and things keep happening. I was going to tell him this morning at his place until..."

"...Until I showed up," Candice finished for her. "So, that wasn't something you said just to get the best of me? You really are pregnant?"

"Yeah, I am. Look, I know I said a lot of things that were out of line, but even then, nothing that I said was a lie. I wouldn't make something like that up just to win an argument."

"Just do yourself a favor. Don't wait until it's too late to tell him like I did," Candice said with a hint of sadness in her voice.


	23. Chapter 23

Late that night, Amanda awoke with a jerk and a gasp after having tossed fitfully in her sleep from the same nightmare she had been having since Candice had shown up. She'd had it during her nap with Leah and this was the third time since going back to bed after putting Candice to bed in her mother's room. She couldn't be sure if it was the hormones or the stress from the day. All she knew for sure was that she needed Lee and was glad that he had managed to convince her that they should stay together at her house for safety. As her heartbeat began to slow, she turned to reassure herself of his presence realizing immediately that she was alone in the bed. 

"Lee." Amanda whispered although why she was whispering was beyond her. She slipped out of bed and into her robe, and then padded in her bare feet down the stairs. The glow of lamplight from the living room through the crack at the bottom of the closed double doors told Amanda where her husband had gone. If Lee was up in the middle of the night, chances were he needed her as much as she needed him.

When she entered the living room, she found Lee poring over the pocket photo album that Candice had given him earlier in the day. "Hey Big Fella," she said as she made her way to him and snuggled up next to him on the couch.

"I didn't wake you, did I" he said as he put a protective arm around her and gently kissed her forehead.

"No."

"You were having another nightmare, weren't you?"

Amanda nodded slowly."Same one, I sure wish I could figure out what my subconscious mind is trying to tell me...You know Mother always says that if you dream something over and over then..."

"Amanda, you know I love you, but it's late and I'm just really not up to Dotty-isms right now."

Amanda looked at the clock. "It's not that late. It's only 11:45."

"Well, it's late for everything that we've been through today," he said as he pulled her closer to him. "Amanda, I think we both know what's really behind your nightmares."

Amanda bit her lip thoughtfully."Maybe," Amanda said as she flipped the page if the photo album lying in her husband's lap. "She's a beautiful little girl and you know, in this picture here she looks a lot like your mother."

Lee examined the picture more closely, "You know you're right, I really hadn't noticed but she does have my mother's smile. She was always smiling even when she was angry, not that she didn't have a temper. I remember one time with I was about her age playing in the back yard...I saw a bunch of ants building an anthill and I remembered my dad telling me about some of his buddies eating chocolate covered ants. Well, I was getting hungry and there were the ants so I just scooped up a shovel full of them and headed for the kitchen. I laid the shovel down on the counter and I don't have to tell you that by the time I got the chocolate out of the refrigerator those ants were everywhere. I knew my mother was going to kill me. I started trying to stomp on them and beat them with the shovel to kill them before they could get very far. All that noise brought my mom running. You have to remember that she was British and very proper but when those ants started crawling up her leg..."

"Stop, you're making this up" Amanda said as she laughed at Lee's story as she knew he had a habit of greatly embellishing any tale he told.

"No I'm telling you the truth and to beat it all, she actually made me try a chocolate covered ant so I'd never attempt the recipe again."

"I can't believe I let you in my kitchen."

Lee sighed. "I really missed having mom and dad around when I was growing up."

"At least you're starting to remember more about your life with them before they were killed," Amanda said hopefully.

"Thanks to you... I always just tried to squash those memories before...it was all too painful before...Just open wounds reminding me of how much I didn't have...but now I have you," Lee started as he pulled Amanda closer to him "and the boys and your mother." They both had to smile at the fact that Dotty had become important to Lee "My life is full and what I didn't have isn't so painful anymore."

"Now, you have Leah, too," she said. _And our baby, _she added to herself. She wasn't quite ready to try again to give him that news with Candice right up the stairs. Who knows what the manipulative siren might do next if she did. She'd already broken into her house tonight.

"Yeah, I know..." He said as she stroked the picture. "But as hard as I try, she doesn't feel like she's mine."

"You're being too hard on yourself. It's only been a day."

"Yeah, and I've spent this entire day trying to feel like her dad," he said sounding hopeless. "She's my kid. It shouldn't feel this unnatural, this...this hard." I don't know. Maybe we should rethink the idea of having a baby together. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a dad. Maybe because I've been a loner for so damn long."

Amanda looked at him panic-stricken. She hoped that he hadn't changed his mind about them having a baby together. The way he'd talked earlier tonight, it seemed like nothing would make hi happier that to find out that she was carrying his child, now she wasn't so sure. She hoped that it was just a momentary case of self-doubt since he was thrown into fatherhood so unexpectedly. _With our baby, it will be different, he'll have time to prepare,_ She thought as she tried to reassure herself. Feeling that he needed a little reassurance of his own, she said. "Listen, you've only known her for a day. Did you think that when the test results came back that someone would poof, wave a magic wand and you'd be super dad instantly?"

"But you're so great with her." he stated as he tossed the photo album disgustedly onto the coffee table.

Amanda laid her hand in her husband's that now rested on his lap. As she did so, he began to stroke her hair gently. "What is it you always say about me...'I've got motherhood carved in my bones'...You may think that but the first time they laid Phillip in my arms I was scared to death. Even though I carried him inside me for nine months, I didn't know this little person and I had no clue what I was going to do with him. Forget all that stuff you here about instant bonding. It's a fantasy. It wasn't until I took him home and spent day after day, hour after hour taking care of him and getting to know all his little quirks that I felt like a mother."

"You mean you, Amanda Stetson, weren't a natural from the start?"

"I was young and hadn't really been around a lot of kids. I was a cheerleader, a sorority girl; I was too busy with my social life to babysit. Getting to know Leah will be one of the best parts of your life, I promise. One day crawl up in your lap and she'll look up at you with those big eyes of hers and say 'I love you, Daddy." Your heart will just melt and it'll seem like she can't possibly be as old as she is but at the same time you won't remember a time in your life when she wasn't a part of it." Amanda started to choke up.

"Hey now," he said, reading his wife's mind clasping her hand tighter. "We've still got plenty of years with the boys, and if it makes you feel any better I'll crawl up in your lap and tell you I love you, Mommy," He teased as he made a move to do just that. Amanda laughed as she playfully smacked at him. "Hey, I was just kidding. That's a little too Freudian for even me."

"You know I was thinking that maybe we should invite Leah to your party on Saturday. What do you think?"

"I think we're going to have enough to explain to the rest of the family without adding her to the equation, don't you think?"

Amanda nodded. "You're probably right, it would just confuse her more anyway. I don't know though, she did seem pretty impatient about wanting to meet her brothers."

"I think that she gets that impatience from Candice, " Lee said. "She was always like that when we were dating."

"I don't know, Lee. You can be pretty impatient yourself," Amanda pointed out.

"Me?"He said in mock surprise. "Uh-uh."

"No? I seem to recall somebody getting pretty impatient about use making wedding plans when we'd only been engaged a couple of months."

"Oh, you're gonna' hold that against me, are you? After all the time we spent dancing around each other trying to deny there was something there, I didn't want to wait any longer than I had to, to make you my wife."

"Well, I'm glad for you your impatience on that score," she said happily. "I'm so happy to be your wife. Of course, I'll be happier once I can be your wife out in the open. So, back to the subject at hand. Leah's your daughter. She should be at your party."

"Yeah, but how are we going to explain that one to the boys and your mom?"Lee questioned.

"Well, Mother will be the easy one. I mean, she knows that at almost thirty-seven, you're going to have had lovers before me. I don't think it'll be that much of a shock to her. As for the boys, maybe we should give Joe a call in the morning and have him bring them home long enough to meet her and tell them the whole thing then."

"Or we could just wait until the party to introduce them, drop the whole ball of wax at once," Lee suggested.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?"Amanda said uncertainly.

"Well, maybe not, but your idea to tell them about my kid, then three days later tell them we're married isn't so hot either. They would just barely have had time to adjust to finding out that I've got a kid of my own after I've worked so hard to form a relationship with them, and then find out that I married their mom behind their backs at a later time, and then add to that telling them what we do for a living."

"You're right. Your way is better," Amanda said. "I just wish we were closer to finding whoever it was that pulled Candice out of that van. I spent a good chunk of the day poring through all the old files and even some unrelated files to see if anything connected and so far, nothing."

He ran his fingers through his hair the way he always did when he was frustrated. "Oh well, Francine told me at the hospital that Efraim volunteered to work on it tonight and tomorrow. Right now, I don't want to think about anything but enjoying my time with my wife."

"Isn't this out of his regular work load?"Amanda asked in concern. "Did Billy assign him to this?"

"I don't think he did, but I think he has a thing for Candice. Did you notice the way he was falling all over himself when she was around? He hasn't been this bad since he had that thing for Francine."

"Ooh, what is it with you men and Candice and Francine?"

"Insanity, or maybe it's something like the taming of the shrew."

"You just better not think you're ever gonna' tame me, Buster!'

"I wouldn't dream of it, Mrs. Stetson. I love that fiery, wild side of you that you let only me see," He said as he kissed her softly.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Amanda said with a laugh. "I don't know if I believe your theory about Efraim, though. I mean, I did notice him acting weird when it comes to Candice and not just when she was around him, but whenever her name was mentioned."

"Maybe he was just as shocked as the rest of us to find out that she was alive. I mean, after all, he was part of the original team who worked this case. Maybe that's why he volunteered to help with going through the files."

"Maybe," Amanda said thoughtfully as she lay her head down in her husband's lap. She knew that the answer to this case was somewhere in the files or in the files that Candice had hidden away and she knew she was overlooking something; she just couldn't put her finger on what. That was probably the source of her nightmares.

"You know what I still wish I could figure out?" Lee said as he reached across Amanda for the photo album that he'd discarded and began flipping through it again.

"What's that?" she said as she glanced at the photos as he thumbed through them.

"This little girl. I know she's mine. Even without having seen the lab results, the more I spend time with her, the more of myself I see in her, but it still doesn't make sense to me at all. I still keep thinking about it. Candice told me she was born in October of 1982, which fits perfectly with about the middle of my relationship with her, but I keep scratching my head on how she came to be. Candice and I were only together for about six months..."

"That was a long-term relationship for you at that time, wasn't it?" Amanda teased with a giggle.

"Very funny," Lee said. "I'm trying to be serious here. The point is that at that point in my life, I never thought I ever wanted to have kids, so I always made sure that I was cautious and not only me, but the women that I was with too."

"The carry-a-condom-in-your-wallet kind of cautious?" Amanda joked.

"Would you knock it off with the jokes already? This is seriously bugging me, okay?"

"Look, Lee, beating yourself up over this and making yourself crazy about it isn't going to do any good. The point is that it happened and now we have to deal with it. Besides, even if you're careful, there's no contraceptive that is 100% foolproof. Believe me, I speak from experience."

"Oh? I thought you and Joe planned to have your kids," Lee said in surprise.

"Jamie, yes, Phillip, however, was a surprise to us both," Amanda said. _Just like this baby, _she thought as she absently stroked her stomach. "If I were you, I wouldn't dwell on how Leah was conceived as much as I would how to get used to having her around now that you know about her."

"I know it's probably not important, but I can't help feeling bugged by it. Whatever it is, however it happened is a question for another day. We need to get back to bed," Lee said as he softly stroked her hair. "We've got to be at work early and we need to get Candice back in the hospital before then." He tossed the photo album back on the table in frustration.

Amanda took a quick peek at the clock. "Hey, it's midnight now; it's officially your birthday," Amanda said softly and let out a yawn.

"You know, now that you mention it, I'm not that sleepy after all. I suggest that we go back upstairs to the bedroom and you give me my birthday present before the..." His sentence was interrupted by the sound of Amanda snoring gently. He chuckled softly. "...or maybe not," he said as he kissed her tenderly then gently lifted his sleeping wife into his arms and carried her to bed.

\


	24. Chapter 24

The next morning, Amanda arose before Lee and crawled out of bed, her stomach doing some slight somersaults. She braced herself on the doorframe for a moment to steady herself before slipping into her robe and with a brief loving gaze at her sleeping husband, exited the room. As she passed by her mother's room, she took a peek in on Candice who was still sleeping soundly. As she looked in on the sleeping woman, she couldn't help but wonder if their conversation of the night before had had any real impact on her. She hoped so for the sake of her unborn child and her boys, hoped that the desperate woman would end her crusade to break up her family. She padded down the hall to her boys' room to find that Leah was already awake, that she had extracted some matchbox cars from Jamie's toy chest, and was happily playing with them on the floor. She watched in silence for a moment with a smile. As she watched her, she noticed that she was re-enacting the events of the night before with the cars.

"Take that, bad guys," Leah said as she crashed two toy cars together.

"You having fun," Amanda asked in amusement, though also was a little concerned at what impact the car chase might have had on her young stepdaughter. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered what her entire life had been like with constantly being on the run and moving from place to place. She felt an immense sadness for this little girl never having had a stable home life. That was exactly what she had been trying to avoid with her own children when Joe had tried numerous times to convince her to travel with him and drag the boys all over hell's half-acre. All she had wanted was for her babies to have a safe, happy home and her refusal to uproot them had led to the end of her marriage. She shook off the utterly depressing memories and focused her attention solely on the little girl in front of her who so desperately needed the same kind of stability in her life that she had always worked so hard to provide for her boys.

Leah nodded happily and then with a slight look of worry in her big eyes said, "Is it okay that I play with my brother's toys?"

"Of course, it is, Sweetheart," Amanda said in a soothing tone as she knelt beside her. "Jamie hasn't played with these in a while, so I don't think that he'd mind a bit, but why don't we put these away for now and get some breakfast? I bet you're hungry. Do you like pancakes?"

"Yes, yes, yes," Leah answered exuberantly as she tossed the cars back in the toy chest. Amanda smiled. She had to give Candice some credit as a mother. Leah picked up after herself without a fight.

"Well, then why don't we go downstairs and I'll make us some?" Amanda said as she rose and reached for Leah's hand.

"You know how to make pancakes?"Leah said excitedly as they walked down the hall toward the stairs and then down into the kitchen.

"Sure do," Amanda said as she released her hand and began to get out ingredients for breakfast. "I make them for my boys all the time. Doesn't your mommy ever make them for you?"

"Uh-uh," Leah said with a shake of her blond head. "We always go out to eat."

"Oh," Amanda said with another wave of sadness at the thought that this poor little girl had probably never had a home-cooked meal. She started a pot of coffee then as she piled the things she would need on the counter, she approached Leah, lifted her up to sit on the corner of the counter and said, "Why don't you sit right here and you can watch me make them and I'll teach you how it's done."

"Oh, goody," Leah gushed. The little girl watched intently as Amanda mixed together flour, baking powder and salt, and then set it aside as she reached for a smaller mixing bowl all the while telling Leah what she was doing as she went.

"Next we need to beat the eggs," Amanda said as she firmly cracked an egg against the side of the bowl, expertly emptying its contents into it. "You wanna' try with the other one?"

"Can I?" Leah replied with excitement.

"Sure, go ahead," Amanda said as she handed her the second egg for her batter. "Make sure to hit it pretty good and try to keep it over the bowl so we don't make a mess," Amanda told her.

Amanda watched with a smile as Leah rapped the egg against the bowl and tried to imitate what she's seen her do. "Oopsie," Leah said as she broke open the egg not nearly as smoothly as Amanda had done, a piece of the shell landing in the bowl.

"That's okay," Amanda said. "You did pretty good for your first try. Even the best of us sometimes still get shells where they're not supposed to be. I'll get it, but first let's get you cleaned up. You've got a little on your hands there." Amanda turned to the sink and dampened a dishcloth, then turned back to face her stepdaughter and proceeded to wipe off the little girls sticky hands.

"Well, isn't this nice," Candice said with a pout as she hobbled down the last two steps into the kitchen on her crutches. She eyed Amanda warily, intensely disliking the other woman's interaction with her daughter.

"Mommy, mommy!"Leah said excitedly. "'Manda's teaching me to cook pancakes!"

Candice couldn't help but smile at her daughter's excitement and said, "That's nice, Sweetie," as she fully entered the kitchen and leaned wearily against the opposite end of the counter, her struggle to get down the stairs taking its toll, the pain medication the hospital had given her, having long ago worn off.

"Good morning, Candice," Amanda said with a sweet smile, though she couldn't help inwardly cheering as seeing the other woman looking so defeated. _Who's the weak one now?_ She thought and immediately felt guilty for thinking it, but after their heated conversation of the day before, she felt that just a little payback was in order. "Are you hungry?" Amanda finished her task of taking care of Leah, then fished the wayward eggshell out of the mixing bowl and resumed her breakfast preparations.

"Starved," Candice admitted.

"Why don't I help you get settled over here," Amanda said with a nod toward the breakfast nook as she approached her and offered a hand to help her. "That way you can get off your feet."

Candice pulled away and snapped, "I can do it myself," as she propped herself up again on her crutches and slowly made her way around the island to the table in the corner. It was bad enough that she'd had to lower herself to ask for Amanda's help in getting into bed the night before. She wasn't about to let her win by admitting that she needed help again.

Amanda sighed and shook her head trying to shake off the other woman's attitude, determined not to let her get to her. "Listen, Leah, why don't you go upstairs and get out of your nightgown, okay?" she said as she lifted her down from the counter, setting her on the floor. "I should have some pancakes ready for you by the time you get back."

"Okay," Leah said and ran for the stairs, leaving the two women alone in an awkward silence.

Amanda was the first to break their stalemate once she was sure Leah was out of earshot, saying, "You know, Candice, I know that you don't like me, that you see me as the enemy, but as I said yesterday, I don't want to be your enemy. You and I are going to have to learn to get along." As she said this, she continued in her task of fixing breakfast. "I mean, Lee and Joe don't really care much for one another, but they've learned to tolerate each other for the sake of the boys, since they both going to be a permanent part of their lives. I am really hoping that you and I can do the same."

"So, where _is_ Lee, anyway?" Candice asked as she watched Amanda at work, a painful stab of jealousy coursing through her at her obvious domestic talent.

"He's still asleep. We did have a pretty late night," Amanda said pointedly with a look at Candice, making her meaning perfectly clear, perturbed by the fact that Candice had completely disregarded the olive branch she'd offered her and that her only thought was on Lee.

Candice flushed and said bitterly, "So, I noticed."

_Gotcha', _Amanda thought an amused expression crossing her face. She couldn't resist rubbing a little salt in the wound. "Well, you _did_ very rudely interrupt us," Amanda reminded her as she heated the griddle to begin turning her homemade batter into pancakes.

"That didn't seem to deter you for long," Candice said. "That's why you _really _wanted me in your mother's room, isn't it? So, I'd hear _everything_?"

"Not at all," Amanda said with a smug smile in knowing that she'd gotten to her. "I just really felt that with that broken leg, you'd be much more comfortable in a bigger bed."

"You know I was a little surprised at the things I heard last night. When I met you yesterday, you struck me as the quiet type, but you're not quiet at all, are you? Of course, that could just be Lee's influence. I mean, we both know how_ talented_ he is," Candice said with a piercing glare to remind Amanda that she'd once had him in her bed.

Amanda once again smiled sweetly and fired back, "Oh, I'd say he'd gotten better with age and probably even learned a thing or two from me. I mean, when you're together for so long, like we have been, you learn how to mix things up, especially since he was injured yesterday. It's been almost two years since we started dating, yet we still keep it exciting. That's something you never got a chance to do, is it? Lee was just telling me last night that you two were only together for six months. Now, that I really think about it, when I was looking over the files yesterday, it occurred to me that you and Lee hadn't even known each other for two years before you disappeared. That's not very long at all to get to know a person and all the little things that turn a person on, all their likes, their dislikes..."

"The little things that make them crazy..." Lee finished as he entered the room and nuzzled the tender pulse point on his wife's neck causing Amanda to squeal to illustrate his point.

"Good morning," Amanda said with a smile, "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," Lee said as he kissed her cheek softly and slid an arm around her waist from behind. "I know what would really make my birthday a happy one," he whispered low in her ear.

"Hey, hey, hey," Amanda said. "Not while I'm in front of a hot griddle."

"Is that what we're calling it now?" he murmured as he nipped at her ear.

Amanda wriggled out of his grasp, turned her attention back to the pancakes and said, "There's coffee made. Now, go on and don't make me burn these."

"Fine," Lee said with a mock pout as he walked to the coffee pot and prepared himself a cup. Candice watched while Lee fixed his cup and was surprised to find that he knew exactly where everything was kept in Amanda's nest kitchen. "Coffee, Candice?" he said as he noticed that she was watching his every move like a hawk.

"Yeah, thanks," she answered just as Leah bounded down the stairs.

"You still take both cream and sugar?" Lee asked.

"Um...yeah," she replied amazed that he'd remembered. Maybe there was some hope, after all.

"Amanda, coffee?" Lee asked as he fixed Candice's cup. Candice smiled in elation that Lee had offered his wife coffee, only after he'd made the same offer to her.

"No, thank you, Sweetheart," Amanda said not sure her stomach could take it.

"Okay," Lee said as he place Candice's cup in front of her while Amanda piled hot-off-the-griddle pancakes onto plates just as Leah bounded down the stairs.

"Are the pancakes done yet?" Leah inquired as she bounced up and down excitedly.

"Sure are," Amanda said as she guided Leah over to the table to sit next to her mother and set a plate in front of her.

"Candice, listen," Lee said. "I know after you coming here last night, you're not going to like this, but since we need to get you back to the hospital and Amanda's kids are going to be with their dad for the rest of this week and next week, I think it would be a good idea for Leah to stay here. At least until the doctors say you can safely be released from their care."

"No, I won't have her staying here with..."she shot an icy glare at Amanda.

"You don't have a choice, Candice," Lee said firmly. "You're in no position to properly look after her."

"I don't see why she can't stay with Francine. She was just fine there two nights ago," Candice protested.

"Because I'm her father and I have a right to spend time with my child," Lee countered.

Amanda interceding before an argument could break out in front of Leah, said, "Why don't we let Leah decide?" as she placed a plate in front of Candice before walking to the counter and pouring glasses of milk for herself and Leah. "Candice, would like some milk or juice?"

"No," Candice said.

"Okay," Amanda said as she returned to the table, set a glass in front of Leah. "There you go, Sweetie," she said to her stepdaughter as she sat at the table across from Candice who just glared at her. Amanda turned her attention to Candice and said, "Candice, you should eat before it gets cold," as she dug into her own pancakes, hoping that they would help calm her restless stomach.

"Look, would you just stop with the happy homemaker bit?" Candice snapped causing Leah to look at her mother quizzically.

"Are you mad, Mommy?" Leah asked her.

Before Candice could answer, Lee jumped in. "Leah, it's okay," he said as he took the seat across from his daughter next to his wife. "Mommy's just hurting right now. She shouldn't have left the hospital." he looked pointedly at his ex-girlfriend still angered by the fact that she'd broken into the house the night before. he turned his attention back to Leah and said to her, "Listen, Kiddo, we need to get Mommy back to the hospital so the doctors can work to get her better. While she's there, you're going to have to stay here with 'Manda and me Is that okay with you?"

Leah having a mouthful of pancakes only nodded happily. Candice fixed Lee with an icy glare and then said to Leah, "But, Sweetie, wouldn't you rather stay with Auntie Francine?"

Leah looked at her mother, then at her father, then at Amanda, swallowed her mouthful of food and said, "No. Auntie Francine doesn't have any toys for me to play with."

Lee and Amanda looked at each other and laughed at Leah's bluntness while Candice scowled and said, "But Amanda has boys. I'm sure she doesn't have any toys that a girl would like to play with."

"I don't know, " Amanda said. "She seemed to be having a pretty good time playing with Jamie's cars this morning. Besides, I _do_ have some dolls upstairs in the attic that belonged to me when I was a little girl. My mother's kept them for years. I can go get them for you later."

"There, then it's all settled," Lee said with a satisfied smile Candice's direction as he took a sip of his coffee, his eyes dancing in amusement over the top of his coffee cup. "Leah will stay here."

"We do still have a problem," Amanda said. "After last night, my car's in pieces and yours is only big enough for two of us."

"Already taken care of," Lee said shifting his gaze to his wife. "I called Francine before I came downstairs. She's going to swing by here to pick us up. I figured since you're going to be holed up in the office today to go through those files, Leah could keep you company. So my thought was that Francine could take the two of you to the agency while I take Candice in my car to get checked back into the hospital..." He then turned back to his ex and added, "...and make sure that she stays there."

To Lee's surprise, Candice didn't argue, just said, "I think that's a good idea," as her thoughts whirled. While she didn't like the idea of Amanda spending the day with her daughter, she was elated at the thought of spending a little time alone with Lee.

"Then I'll just meet you at the office to help you go through all the stuff we've got so far and the stuff that Candice had in her safety deposit box and see if we can't fill in some pieces to this puzzle."

Their conversation was interrupted by the opening of the back door and Dotty's cheery voice saying, "Amanda, Darling, you will not believe what happened this morning-" Dotty stopped short at seeing the scene in front of her and said, "Amanda, what's going on here?"

Lee and Amanda glanced worriedly at each other both wondering how they were going to explain this to her mother.


	25. Chapter 25

Dotty stopped short at seeing the scene in front of her and said, "Amanda, what's going on here?"

Lee and Amanda glanced worriedly at each other both wondering how they were going to explain this to her mother.

"Mother, what are you doing here?"Amanda said.

"I live here, remember," Dotty said with a wary glance at Candice, then Leah, "The question is, what are they doing here and while we're on the subject, who are they?"

"Um...I...well..."Amanda stammered.

Lee rose from his seat to rescue his wife, placing a hand on Dotty's shoulder, "Uh...Listen, Dotty, why don't we go have a talk and I'll explain everything," he said with a nod toward the back door.

"Do you want me to come with you?"Amanda asked.

"No," Lee said. "This is my deal. It's up to me." He grabbed for his coffee cup as he and Dotty headed out the door that she'd just entered and into the back yard, Lee perching on the edge of the picnic table. "So...uh...There's something that I need to tell you and...Uh..."

"Let me," Dotty said holding up a hand to shut him up. "That little girl in there is yours, isn't she?"

Lee looked at her in surprise and said, "How did you-"

Dotty interrupted him again by saying, "It's obvious by the awkwardness in the room when I walked in. Aside from that, she has your eyes."

"Yes, she does," Lee said. He was silent for a moment and said, "Look, I want you to k now that this wasn't something that I was hiding from Amanda. I...I..." Lee stopped realizing that no matter how he explained it, it was still going to sound bad to his mother-in-law. He awkwardly sipped at his coffee while he tried to think of what to say to her.

"You didn't know. I get that," Dotty said as she watched Lee and how nervously he was fiddling with his coffee cup drawing attention to the wedding ring he wore. She then glanced backward to the house and said, "So, I'm guessing that woman in there is the child's mother."

"Yeah, she is. She and I dated five years ago and she...uh..." He paused again as he tried to figure out how to explain to her what happened without revealing the truth about the agency. "...She sort of...took off for a while."

"With your child," Dotty said.

"Look, Dotty, I never even knew that she was pregnant, that Leah even existed until yesterday. If I have, I would have taken responsibility for her a long time ago."

"Of course, you would have, Lee. That's the kind of man that you are," Dotty replied, then having found the perfect opportunity to let him know she'd noticed his ring, added, "I mean, I see what a wonderful stepfather you've been to Phillip and Jamie, I know that you'd have been an equally wonderful father to Leah."

Dotty's words had an immediate impact on Lee as he nearly choked on a mouthful of coffee and sputtered, "S-s-stepfather."

'Yes, Lee, stepfather," Dotty said firmly. "You are married to my daughter. That makes you a stepfather to my grandchildren."

Lee gaped at Dotty, surprised by her matter-of-fact comment and said in bewilderment, "You don't seem surprised."

"Not at all," Dotty said. "I've known since Amanda was shot.'

"What?"

"Oh, please, you didn't think that I was dumb enough to buy that tall tale about IFF calling you to let you know what had happened to Amanda, did you? I know for a fact that the hospital would never have called her place of employment before contacting her next of kin, which is you. I also know that they didn't' need to contact you at all because you were already there. Then there was that Dr. Neely, when Amanda woke up asking me where my son-in-law was. I mean, it didn't take much for me to put the pieces together. I already knew before you two left town that contrary to Amanda's assertion that she just needed to get away for a while, that she was really going on a romantic getaway with you. Of course, until I got there, I had no idea that it was supposed to be not just a romantic getaway, but your honeymoon." When Lee continued to silently gape her in surprise, she went on. "Don't look so surprised. I knew the first day that I met you that you were in love with my daughter. I just never could figure out why you and Amanda felt the need to hide it. Why do you think I've been dropping so many hints about the two of you settling down? I've been trying to get you to come clean with me."

"So, why are you telling me all of this now? Why not months ago?" Lee questioned finally finding his voice again.

"Well, I figured if you were keeping your marriage a secret, you must have a good reason for it and that when you felt the time was right, you'd admit to it. When I saw you were wearing your ring..." she said with a nod to his left hand that still tightly clenched his cup, "...I just thought that you'd decided to stop hiding it."

"We have," Lee said still shaking his head at the idea that his mother-in-law had known about their marriage almost from the beginning. "We were planning on telling everyone at the party on Saturday."

"Oh, right, the party," Dotty said. "So, may I ask the reason for the sudden change?" She glanced at her son-in-law wondering if he knew what she'd figured out days ago.

"We've been talking about it for a while. It's been really hard on both of us to be married, but living apart. To be honest, Candice showing up out of nowhere with my kid is what pushed us that direction more than anything."

"Let me guess, she's trying to rekindle the old flame and is sure that because she's the mother of your child that she has that right?"

"In a nutshell," Lee said with a sigh, but at the same time was amazed at Dotty's intuitiveness. He could see that Amanda came by that naturally. "We thought if we let her know that we're married, she'd get the hint that that can never happen, but she's persistent."

"Well, if you're really serious about Amanda, you'll just have to try again," Dotty said firmly.

"What do you mean, if I'm serious about Amanda? I wouldn't have married her if I weren't' serious about her," Lee said looking affronted.

"But you married her in secret and kept it secret. That makes me wonder if you weren't quite ready to give up your bachelor pad and your single life," Dotty said pointedly.

"That's not it at all, Dotty. I committed to Amanda for life," Lee said.

"Well, so did Joe King and you know how that worked out," Dotty said bitterly.

"I'm not Joe," Lee said hotly slamming his coffee cup down in annoyance. "I'm not the guy who wants all the benefits of marriage with none of the responsibility. When I said that I was going to stand by Amanda for better or for worse, that's exactly what I meant. This crap we're going through now is just one of the "for worse" parts, but I have no doubt that we'll get through the same way that we've gotten through everything else that life has thrown our way. I mean, come on, if we could survive her being nearly fatally shot on our honeymoon and come out stronger for it, having a kid I never knew about should be a piece of cake. This whole thing has even got us talking about having a kid together." He smiled as he thought of the happy dream he'd had the night before of Amanda telling him that she was pregnant with his baby.

"Oh?"Dotty said curiously. Clearly he didn't know what she knew, thought being a bachelor, maybe he didn't recognize the signs the way that she did.

"Yeah," Lee said. "Spending time with Leah and trying to get to know her has been rough, but it's made me think that I want to do this right. You know, be there from the start and there's no one in the world that I want to be the mother of my children that Amanda."

"So, this other woman?" Dotty said with a backward glance to the house.

"Means nothing to me," Lee confirmed to put Dotty's mind at ease when he saw the look of worry cross her face. "Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to live up to my responsibility to that little girl in there, but that doesn't go hand in hand with any kind of personal relationship with her mother."

"Good," Dotty said with a firm nod. "I'm very glad to hear that, Lee. My daughter loves you so much and after the heartbreak Joe put her through...I...Well, I'd just hate to see her go through something like that again."

"I promise you that she won't," Lee said softly. "Listen, we should get back in there. Amanda and I have a lot to do at the office today and Candice needs to be in the hospital." He rose from his perch, grabbed his cup, and used his free hand to guide Dotty toward the house.

Dotty nodded and said, "I noticed the crutches. What happened there?"

"Car wreck," Lee said simply. As they entered the house, he noticed that Amanda was no longer at the table. "Where's Amanda?"

"She went upstairs to get dressed," Candice said as she sipped at her coffee.

"And she's looking for a dolly for me to play with," Leah said exuberantly as she bounced up and down in her seat.

"You're her mother, I assume?" Candice said eying the older woman warily.

"Yes, and Lee's mother-in-law," Dotty said firmly.

"Oh, right. I should introduce you," Lee said. "Dotty West, Candice Davenport."

"It's very nice to meet you, Candice," Dotty said politely.

"Humph," was Candice's only response as it was clear that Lee had told her about the secret marriage and contrary to being angry about it, she seemed happy and supportive, in spite of the secrecy, giving Amanda one more ally.

"You know what, I should go help Amanda," Dotty said as she hurried toward the stairs. She soon found her daughter in the attic, now dressed for the day. "You know, you should really be careful up here."

"Mother, I've lived in this house for over ten years. I know my way around the attic," Amanda said as she rooted through boxes, her back to her mother.

"I know, but it's just so cluttered up here and in your condition, you really shouldn't be sucking in all this dust," Dotty said with a stern motherly look.

Amanda whipped her head around abruptly, gaped at her mother and said, "What do you mean, in my condition?"

"Oh, please, Amanda, I figured out days ago that you're pregnant, just like I figured out months ago that you and lee are married. The question is, why haven't you told Lee? It's very clear to me that he hasn't got the first clue that you're carrying his child."

Amanda stared at her mother in shock. "You know?"

"Amanda, you're not a very clever liar when it comes to matters of the heart. I've known since your thwarted honeymoon that you and Lee eloped."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"Amanda questioned.

"I was just waiting for you to tell me yourself," Dotty said. "What I want to know is why haven't you told Lee about your pregnancy?" I assumed that was why you went to his apartment yesterday."

"I did," Amanda said with a nod, "but then Candice showed up there to tell him about Leah and...He...he's been so thrown by learning that he has a daughter that he never knew about that I...I...I just couldn't. I needed to give him some time to deal with his child." She turned back to her task and again turned her back to her mother.

"And what about your child?" Dotty asked as she began to search through boxes with her. "That woman downstairs never told him that he was going to be a father and now you're doing the same thing. Don't you think you're being a little unfair to him in not giving him the opportunity to share this joyous news with you? I mean, the way he talked when I spoke to him, nothing would make him happier than to have a child with a woman he actually loves."

"I know, Mother, and I will tell him. I've tried to tell him a couple of times now and things just keep happening to prevent it."

"Aha," Dotty said in triumph causing Amanda to turn her direction again. "Look what I found."

"Perfect," Amanda said as she took the well-worn rag doll from her mother's hands.

"Amanda, tell him and soon, okay?"

"Yes, Mother, I will," Amanda said as they exited the attic together, then descended the stairs and stepped into the kitchen to find Lee clearing the breakfast dishes from the table.

"Look at you," Dotty said with a smile. "You're getting to be quite handy around the house. It'll be nice when the two of you can truly settle down like a normal married couple."

Lee smiled at that thought as he continued his task while Amanda approached Leah, knelt beside her chair and said, "Leah, I'd like you to meet Lois-Ann. She was my favorite doll when I was a little girl."

"Really?"Leah said in delight as she took the doll eagerly from Amanda.

"You know, since I don't have any little girls to give this to, I think you should have her," Amanda said with a smile.

"Oh, boy!" Leah said excitedly. "I never had a doll of my own before. Thank you, 'Manda." She then hugged Amanda tightly.

"You're welcome, Sweetie," Amanda said while Candice scowled at her.

Dotty looked at Candice curiously and said, "She never had a doll before?"

Candice looked at Dotty in surprise. Clearly, Lee hadn't told her everything. She then glanced at Amanda who had a warning look on her face. "Well, we've never been in the same place for very long. I've had to travel a lot...for work...so, we always had to travel light."

"Listen, Francine's going to be here soon," Lee said before Dotty could get too inquisitive as they still haven't dropped the agency bomb yet. He nodded to Amanda. "You should get Leah dressed. I'll finish up in here."

"I can get her dressed," Candice said as she made a move to get up.

"No, Candice," Lee said sternly. "Leah's things are upstairs and you're not very mobile right now. Just let Amanda take care of her."

"Fine," Candice said with a pout, knowing she couldn't argue with that logic, but hating that it meant that Lee's wife would be spending more time with her daughter. She frowned as she watched Amanda scoop Leah into her arms and hustle her up the stairs.

"She is a very sweet little girl," Dotty commented. "What is she, about three?"

"Four," Candice corrected. "She'll be five in October."

"Let me help you with that," Dotty said as she watched Lee making dishwater.

"Thanks, Dotty," Lee said.

"So, how exactly did you and Amanda plan to break the news to the boys about your marriage?"

"We just thought that after the party on Saturday, we'd all sit down and have a family meeting."

"Party?" Candice inquired. "There's a party?"

"Yes," Dotty answered. "I've been planning a party for Lee's birthday on Saturday since his birthday falls mid-week. Oh, wait," she said as a thought occurred to her. "Today is your actual birthday, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," Lee said. "It's not that big a deal though, just another day."

"Nonsense," Dotty said as she jumped in and began drying the dishes after he washed them. "You should come back by here tonight and we'll have a nice dinner for you."

"Dotty, I appreciate the thought, but that's really not necessary. You're doing this party thing and that's more than enough. Besides, it wouldn't be the same without the boys here."

"Well, I talked to Joe and he's going to give up his Saturday with them to bring them here for the party, at least."

"Good, I can't wait to see them. They've only been gone a couple of days and I miss them already," Lee said as he washed the last dish and handed it to Dotty, then moved toward the table to wipe it down. Candice snorted at hearing this. "You have something to say, Candice?" He said coolly.

"I just find it fascinating that you care so much about two kids who aren't even yours, yet you don't seem to give a crap about your own daughter."

"Who said I don't?"

"Well, you're bound and determined to take her away from me, letting _her_ do everything for her when I'm her mother."

"Okay, first, I'm not trying to take anything away from you, second, Amanda is my wife and as such, I want her to get to know my daughter."

"_Our_ daughter," Candice corrected.

Lee ignored her comment and said, "And third, since you bolted from the hospital before you were healthy enough to do so, you're in no condition to look after her and finally, if I didn't give a crap about her, I wouldn't care where she stayed or who was looking after her. You and I both know that there are a lot worse places she could be than here with a woman who's already proven that she's an amazing mother."

"Spare me yet another glorious epic tale of how wonderful Amanda is," Candice retorted.

"Deal with it, Candice. She's my wife and you've got a lot of damn nerve talking about her as if she's public enemy number one when she was nice enough to open her home to you, in spite of the hateful things you've been saying to her. You need to realize that all these little barbs you keep slinging at her aren't exactly going to win you any points with me. I love my wife and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. That's why I married her." The doorbell rang as Lee finished his rant to Candice. "I got it," he said as he headed toward the front door, violently tossing the dishcloth into the sink as he passed by it.

Dotty glanced at the blond still seated at the table and was unable to hide her amusement at Lee's words to her. Amanda descended the stairs with Leah, just as Lee and Francine walked into the room, "So, he's finally gonna' make an honest woman of you, huh?" Lee was saying.

"Yeah," Francine said with a happy smile as she showed off her new ring. "He gave me this last night."

"Congratulations, Francine," Amanda said as she hugged her. "I'm so happy for you."

"Thank you, Amanda," Francine replied as she released her friend, "You about ready to go?"

"Yeah, I just need to grab my purse," she said as she snagged it from the kitchen counter. "Do you mind if we make a stop on the way? I want to pick up a couple of things to keep Leah occupied at the office while I work."

"Sure," Francine said.

"Amanda, I'll see you at the office after I get Candice settled back at the hospital."

"Okay, Sweetheart," Amanda said as she gave him a quick kiss then headed out the door with Leah and Francine.

Once they were outside, Francine asked, "So, did you tell him yet?"


	26. Chapter 26

The drive from Amanda's to the hospital started in an awkward silence. Candice glanced at Lee as he sat in the driver's seat and said, "You're really determined to make your marriage to Amanda work and get it all out in the open, aren't you?"

"After all the conversations we've had, you're just now figuring this out?"Lee asked incredulously. "And by the way, I don't appreciate you breaking into her house last night. You should have stayed in the hospital where you belong. Not just for your health, but because you've got a killer on your ass. You're safer there with the agency guards in place. Now, instead of trying to track down who that killed is, I have to waste my time driving you back to the hospital before I can do any further investigating. I only thank God that Amanda's so damn good with the computer. She'll probably have a lead for us by the time I get there."

"Humph," Candice scowled. "Is there anything she isn't good at according to you?"

"Honestly, her only weakness as an agent is her aversion to guns. We spend a lot of time on the firing range together to try to improve that, but to be honest; she's so inventive in the field that she very rarely ever needs her gun. Aside from her skills as an agent, she's also a great cook, a loving wife, a devoted mother, a dutiful daughter and a good friend to those who give her a chance," Lee said briefly giving her a pointed look before turning his eyes back to the road ahead.

"That was a rhetorical question. I didn't expect it to turn in to an Ode to Amanda," Candice snapped.

"I'm well aware of that, Candice. I know your sarcastic nature well. There was a time that I found it very entertaining, but not anymore, not when it's directed at my wife. I really wish you'd get off her back. She's tried so hard to be nice to you in spite of the situation and you just keep on pushing her and believe me, I know from experience that you're very close to pushing her to her breaking point, then all hell's gonna' break loose."

"You know when you were rattling off all of her amazing attributes, you didn't seem to make any mention of her skills in the bedroom," Candice said icily. "What's the matter is she not up to spec there? Surely, she's not as good as me."

"You're kidding? You're not seriously asking me to compare the two of you?"

"Why not? I think I should know what I'm up against," Candice said as if she couldn't understand what the big deal was.

"Okay, You're gonna' have to get over this notion that there's some kind of competition between you and Amanda for my heart. There is _no _contest. My heart belongs to Amanda and it always will. I love her, you get me? As for our private life, that is none of your damn business!"

"That bad, huh?" Candice sneered.

"What? No! On the contrary, what I have with Amanda is better than anything I've ever experienced with any woman, including you. i never realized how amazing it could be when you really love someone. That's what makes it really making love, not just sex. You and me, all we ever had was sex, granted, some hot, wild sex, but still just sex and there's no comparison." He mentally kicked himself for revealing more than he'd wanted to, thought the course the conversation had taken had gotten him thinking about his and Amanda's late night talk. "While we're on the subject, how exactly Leah's conception come about?"

Candice glanced at him and said with a chuckle, "Surely, with all your experience, i don't have to explain the birds and the bees to you."

"Damn it, Candy, will you be serious," Lee snapped quickly losing his patience with her. "I'm seriously confused by this. I don't remember you and me ever being reckless. In fact, I've never been reckless at all."

"Oh, is that a fact?" Candice said her eyes narrowing at his intentional use of her loathed nickname. "Then explain to me how your wife is-" she broke off abruptly not finishing her sentence.

"How my wife is what?"Lee asked.

"Nothing," she lied. "To answer your question, it was that week we spent in New York at the end of 1981 when we worked on the Filipov case."

"Right, the Russian nuclear physicist who was defecting. I remember, the agency set us up as a married couple in the apartment next door to make sure the KGB didn't try to nab him while we got him settled."

"Okay, you remember that. Do you remember what happened after that?"

"Yeah, we caught Kaminski and his crew trying to torture him back into the fold. I remember you interrogating the hell out of Kaminski with that experimental drug they called Brain Drain."

"Right," Candice said with a nod. "Don't you remember what happened next, the New Year's Eve party in Times Square?"

"Yeah, I remember that we went to celebrate the New Year and closing the case all in one fell swoop. I also remember waking up two days later in a skid row alley with what felt like the hangover to beat all hangovers."

"Well, we did drink a lot that night," Candice pointed out. "As for how you woke up in that alley, that part of the investigation was never solved. You said you had a hunch that the case wasn't as wrapped up as you thought it was and took off in the middle of the afternoon on New Year's Day."

"Huh," Lee said still unsure as he pulled the 'vette into the hospital's parking lot. He still couldn't quite believe it. He'd had drunk sex before and had never failed to take precautions no matter how drunk he was. At least he had a timeframe, but it still didn't quite fill in all the pieces. He exited the car, quickly made his way to the passenger side and helped Candice out of the car and onto her crutches.

While Candice was being settled into her room, Lee used a nearby payphone to call the office, "Amanda, do me a favor, pull everything you can on the Filipov case for me, cross-reference it with the capture of Ingot Kaminski. Use my key card if you have to," Lee said determined to get the answers he needed.

"But what about the Carrerra files?"Amanda questioned.

"Put those on hold for a moment. This is more important to me right now," Lee said.

"Sweetheart, you sound upset. What's going on?"Amanda asked in concern.

"I want answers, Amanda," Lee said as he related the story to his wife.

"But I thought she was Francine's partner. Why would she be assigned to work with you on an undercover assignment?"

"She was the only female agent available at the time and it was necessary for my cover," Lee explained. "Please, Amanda, can you just do it? For me?"

"Okay, but you have to explain it to Billy," Amanda said with a chuckle.

"Will do," Lee said with a smile. "Listen, I'm going to be here a little while longer. I want to make sure that Candice gets settled and that there's a guard outside her door before I leave to make sure she doesn't bolt again."

"Okay, I'll see you when you get here," Amanda said. "I love you." After hearing Lee respond in kind, Amanda hung up the phone, turned back to the computer in front of her, and began a new search. While the computer was searching for the requested filed, she glanced briefly at her stepdaughter who was sitting at her own desk happily entertained with a _Superfriends_ coloring book, Lois Ann gripped tightly in her right arm. It occurred to her in watching her that she was left-handed like Lee. She glanced at her, a little saddened again by her situation. "You okay over there, Leah?" she asked.

Leah nodded happily and said, "I'm coloring you a picture."

"Okay, just let me know if you need anything," Amanda said before turning her attention back to the computer and began perusing the files. As she did, one reference sparked her memory from Candice's personnel files that she had requisitioned yesterday. "Ah-a," she said in triumph, though as she turned back to the Kaminski file on the computer screen and reviewed it, comparing notes her triumph soon turned to concern, then to anger as she put the pieces together of how Lee became a father. She grimaced as she began to print out documents from the computer files and made note of which pages she needed from Candice's personnel file to compile a file or her own. On a hunch, she pulled up another file on the computer and finding exactly what she expected to find, printed it too.

While she waited for her documents to print, Amanda glanced again at her stepdaughter, once again feeling a deep sadness coming over her now that the realization had hit her that not only was Candice using her daughter as a weapon now, but that had always been her intention even before she'd been conceived. She had tried to give Candice the benefit of the doubt and had even sympathized with her heartbreak, but she was done with that now. After learning what she'd done to Lee to create this sweet, innocent child, she felt a burning hatred for her and a deep desire to hurt her the way she'd hurt Lee.

The printer finally finished, she pulled the documents that she needed from the personnel file, extracted the freshly printed ones from the printer tray and rose from her perch at Lee's desk, saying to Leah. "Sweetie, I need you to come with me. I need to go downstairs to use the copier and I don't want you staying up here by yourself, okay?"

"Okay," she said. "Can I bring Lois Ann?"

"Of course, you can," she said as Leah hopped down from her chair. Amanda reached for the little girl's free hand, led her out into the hallway, making sure to lock the door behind her, as she didn't want to take the chance that someone else would figure out what she had before she had a chance to confront Candice with it.

""Manda?" Leah said as they headed down the stairs together.

"Yes, Leah," Amanda replied as she opened the door hiding the elevator and urged Leah inside with her. She then jabbed at the button for the floor she needed.

"You okay? You look mad," Leah said.

Amanda's expression softened as she looked down at the innocent expression on her young stepdaughter's face. She knelt to get eye level with her and said, "I'm sorry. To be honest, I am a little mad, but not at you. You are just the sweetest little girl ever."

"Who are you mad at," Leah asked inquisitively.

"It's kind of a grown-up thing, nothing for you to worry about," Amanda said not wanting her fury at the child's mother to affect her child. "This is just something that your mommy and daddy and I need to deal with."

"Is it about me?"

Instead of answering, Amanda used her typical answer-a-question-with-a-question tactic. "Why would you think it's about you, Sweetheart?"

"'cause you and Daddy and Mommy were fighting about me when we were eating our pancakes," Leah answered matter-of-factly.

"Oh no, Leah, Honey, we weren't really fighting about you. We were just having a grown-up talk about what's best for you, to make sure that you're safe."

"You mean so the mean men don't get me?" Leah asked as she clutched the doll tighter in her grasp and shuddered. "Mommy told me if anybody tried to take me to just run away as fast as I can."

Amanda's anger flared again as she wondered just what Candice else had told her all these years about the dangerous life she'd grown up in that had the little girl so terrified. "Right, but you know what? You're safe with me and your daddy and you don't have to run away if you're with us. We're going to make sure that nobody ever tries to take you, okay? You trust me?" Leah nodded a hugged Amanda."Oh, look, here's our stop," Amanda said as she released her, stood, took Leah's hand again and led her toward the bullpen toward the copy machine nearly running headlong into Francine.

"Oh, Amanda, good, I was just on my way up to see you. Billy wants to know how you're progressing on the Carrerra files. Have you learned anything yet?"

"You'd be surprised," Amanda said as she entered the bullpen, Francine hot on her heels and made her way to the copier.

"What's this," Francine said with a nod to the documents in Amanda's hand as Amanda loaded some of them into the copier as set it to work.

"Unrelated project," Amanda answered not willing to provide any more details since Candice was her best friend.

"What kind of unrelated project? You know, Billy was very specific that he wanted the Carrerra files to be top priority."

"Nothing that concerns you, Francine," Amanda said as she reached to the papers the copier was spitting out but Francine snatched them first. "Francine, I need those."

When Francine saw what Amanda had copied, she gave her a withering look and said, "These are pages from Candice's personnel files, specifically a reprimand that she was given her early '82. What could you possibly need this for?"

"Francine, just give it to me. I'll explain everything another time," Amanda said as she tried to reach for the papers in Francine's hands, though under the circumstances, she doubted if she'd ever tell Francine what she'd found.

"No, Amanda, you'll explain now. What is this, some kind of plan of yours to make Candice look bad? I mean, I know she rained on your parade and all, but this...this...I don't even know what to say to this."

"I'm not trying to make her look bad, Francine. She's done enough to make herself look bad without any help from me."

"Well, if your plan is to show this to Lee, you're wasting your time. He already knows about it. He worked the same case with her that led to that write-up."

"I don't plan to show this to Lee. In fact, i think he needs to be kept as far removed from this as possible and if you knew what I know about your friend, you'd feel the same way."

"So, what you're going to keep yet another secret from your husband?"Francine said incredulously. She was already irritated at Amanda when she'd found out this morning that Lee still didn't know about her pregnancy.

"Some secrets are necessary to protect people we love," Amanda answered.

"Oh, no, Amanda, that is not acceptable. You tell me what's going on and you tell me now, then I'll decided whether this needs to be kept from him or not."

"No, Francine, not until I know for sure," Amanda said.

"What the hell is going on out here," Billy bellowed as he'd heard the two women's voice getting increasingly louder.

"Nothing, Sir," Amanda said as she finally was able to wrest the documents from Francine's hands now that her attention had been distracted. "I just came down to use the copier and now I'm heading to the dispensary to get some aspirin. Staring at the computer screen for so long has given me a terrible headache." Before either Billy or Francine could stop her, she once again took Leah's hand and hastily exited the bullpen.

"Francine, what was that all about?"Billy asked with an inquisitive look.

"I wish I knew," Francine said hoping that Amanda in her hormonal state wasn't about to stir up trouble in an already tense situation.

Amanda spent the next twenty minutes gathering and collating evidence and was back in the Q Bureau at Lee's desk when he entered the room. "Hi," he said with a smile at seeing his daughter at Amanda's desk and his wife busily working. "You find something?"

"Not sure yet," Amanda said evasively. "I actually have a couple of errands to run to gather more information, so I'm actually glad you're here. Do you mind if I take your car?"

"Not at all," Lee said as he approached his desk. "You have your own set of keys to it for a reason. You need some help?"

"Nope, I've got it," Amanda said as she gathered up her paperwork before Lee could see what she was doing. "Besides, someone needs to be here with Leah. I'll see you soon," she said, planted a quick kiss to his lips, grabbed her purse and hurried out the door leaving Lee shaking his head behind her wondering just what she was up to.

Amanda made her way through the morning traffic as quickly as she could until she reached the hospital, the 'vette screeching to a halt as she pulled it into a parking space. She hurriedly gathered up her things, bustled into the hospital, found the information desk. Without so much as her usual "hello" whipped out her badge, and said in a demanding tone, "Federal agent. I need to know what room Candice Davenport is in now." When she was provided the information she needed and the directions to get there, she said, "Thank you," with a firm nod and hurried off again, adrenaline pumping furiously at the confrontation she knew was about to take place. When she reached the room in question, she displayed her badge again to the guards at the door and was admitted to Candice's room.

"Well, well, Amanda, how nice to see you," Candice said. "You know your husband just left. He sat with me for quite a while to keep me company while the doctors were checking me out. He seemed very concerned about my health. He did say last night that since I'm the mother of his child, he didn't want anything to happen to me."

Amanda put her badge away, tossed her purse into the empty chair, just inside the door, fixed Candice with a steely gaze, slammed the file that she'd compiled on the bedside table and said, "Well, we'll just see if he still feels the same way when he finds out that your child's conception was the result of rape."


	27. Chapter 27

Author's note: Sorry about the very evil cliffhanger I left this tale on yesterday. Please hold off on throwing things at me for that. I had to go to work for ten hours, then had bowling league right after work so didn't have time to get this chapter quite the way I wanted it. I'm now on the first of my three days off this week, so I will have more time for writing. On a related note, my work schedule will be changing on November 30th back to five 8-hour days instead of the four 10-hour days that I'm on now and I will have Sunday-Monday off instead of Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. While it will give me one less free day to write, it will give me two more hours a day to write which may be better. I hope you all enjoy this new chapter.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, well, Amanda, how nice to see you," Candice said. "You know your husband just left. He sat with me for quite a while to keep me company while the doctors were checking me out. He seemed very concerned about my health. He did say last night that since I'm the mother of his child, he didn't want anything to happen to me."

Amanda put her badge away, tossed her purse into the empty chair, just inside the door, fixed Candice with a steely gaze, slammed the file that she'd compiled on the bedside table and said, "Well, we'll just see if he still feels the same way when he finds out that your child's conception was the result of rape."

"You're crazy," Candice said. "There was no rape involved. I assure you I was a willing party to it. As we discussed earlier, Lee is very...skilled. He would never have to force himself on a woman. You're not seriously calling him a rapist?"

"Do you think you're being cute? I'm not talking about him and you damn well know it. I'm talking about you," Amanda said her anger flaring again, revulsion filling her as she thought of what Candice had done. "You're the rapist."

"What? Don't be ridiculous," Candice scoffed. "A woman can't rape a man."

"You think not?"Amanda fired back, but before Candice could answer, she reached for her file, pulled a document from it and continued, "Well, I don't know what else you'd call it. You doped Lee to the gills with a powerful psychotropic drug called PT-285, known on the streets as Brain Drain because it can cause memory loss. It also promotes suggestibility, which is why the agency uses it as a truth agent. It's soluble in water, so my guess is that you dosed Lee's New Year's Eve cocktail with it so you could have your way with him."

"You have no proof of that," Candice said turning white.

"NO? Hmmm, it's all right here," Amanda said indicating the file in her hands. "You set this whole thing up. I did a little double-checking. You lied to Lee then. You weren't the only female agent available; there were at least a dozen others who could have played the part that you did as Lee's wife. I think you even enjoyed it a little, because you knew even then that you were never going to be his wife for real. I'd wager that while he was under the influence of the drugs, that you even tried to convince him that you really were his wife. You purposely requested that assignment so you could get him alone."

"You're nuts," Candice said. "I didn't need an excuse to get him alone. We were already sleeping together then. We'd been seeing each other since November."

"That may be, but Francine already told me that he was ready to break it off with you after a couple of months and in your desperation to keep him, you resorted to the most disgusting means ever to conceive a child with him, to try to trap him into marrying you. You drugged him so you could rape him in an attempt to get pregnant."

"There was no rape! You can't rape the willing," Candice countered, her voice rising. "He loved how _creative_ I am in the bedroom. I'm not sure he could say the same about you."

Amanda ignored Candice's attempt to distract her with an insult. "Willing? No, Candice, he was _not _willing. He was drugged, by you, so you could con him into having unprotected sex with you, something that he never would have done otherwise. That's as bad as those horrible stories that you read in the paper about frat boys lacing girls' drinks with Rohypnol and just like those poor college co-eds, he has no memory of it ever happening. That makes you a rapist."

"No," Candice denied.

"Yes, Candice, You belong in prison for what you've done," Amanda said, "Not only for rape, but for attempted murder as well."

"Now, you're really stretching things here."

"Am I?"Amanda said her eyes narrowing. "It's all right here too. Lee's medical records, your requisition for the drug from the New York field office, you being reprimanded for excessive use of force because the agency suspected that you'd overdosed Kaminski because you never returned the unused portion of it. In your report, you said that you hadn't overdosed him and that in the scuffle that followed, you believed that the Russians had stolen what you had left of the drug and had later used it on Lee in retaliation. Of course, conveniently, the culprits were never found and you didn't have a clue who Kaminski was supposedly working with. Anybody who would really look at these files the way I did would see what I see. There were no other Russians involved. I mean, with a drug as powerful as this one, there's no way Kaminski could have lied to you about how many people he was working with. The truth is, it was Lee that you overdosed on that drug until he passed out and then you panicked and dumped him in an alley, leaving him for dead. If he hadn't been found by a homeless woman and gotten the medical care he needed, he would have died. That's what makes it attempted murder."

"You're grasping at straws," Candice said. "You're just jealous because your baby isn't Lee's first. If you had any real evidence against me, you've have reported in already and those guards outside would be arresting me instead of protecting me."

"Oh, no, Candice, I'm not grasping at straws. The evidence is all right here in my hands. What you didn't know is that you were seen in that high-rise apartment building entering with Lee on New Year's Eve. Secure building, remember? Surveillance cameras, security guards at the doors, secure entry with a key card only. That's why it was used for Filipov to keep him safe. You screwed up, Candice and got caught on camera. It's all in the report detailing the investigation of how Lee ended up in the alley. Now, you were clever enough not to get caught on camera taking him out of the building, but there's an interesting shot of you re-entering the building on the evening of New Year's Day alone. I think there's more than enough evidence here that a jury would put you away for at least twenty years. If I can talk Lee into undergoing regression therapy with Dr. Quidd to regain his memories that would just be one more nail in the coffin you built for yourself."

Candice laughed sardonically and said, "Good luck with that one. You know Lee will never voluntarily go to a shrink."

"Oh, trust me, I know a lot of _creative_," Amanda unable to resist throwing Candice's words back in her face, "ways to get Lee to agree to what I want, none of which involve drugs." She paused for dramatic effect delighted at seeing the look of disdain mixed with fear on the other woman's face. "Then it's only a matter of time before you're rotting away behind a prison wall."

"What is it you want? If you really wanted to see me in prison, you'd have already reported this," Candice said, all pretense of denying what she'd done gone. "You know what I think? I think because you're a mother yourself, you can't bear the thought of separating a child from her mother and that's why you haven't reported me yet. That's where you're weak and I'm not. If there was a way for me to take your baby from you so that you no longer have any tie to Lee, I'd gladly do it."

"That's where you're wrong, Candice. I'm not weak and I don't give a damn about taking Leah from you, not anymore, not with what I know now! You're not fit to be a mother to her. How that little girl became as sweet as she is with a reprehensible mother like you is beyond me. For the record, this baby is not the only tie that I have to Lee. I'm his _wife_. He asked me to marry him of his own accord. I didn't have to sink to purposely getting pregnant to keep him. If you recall, he doesn't even know about this baby yet, so that theory's shot." Amanda paused to take a breath before continuing. "Now, here's what's going to happen. The doctors said they're going to keep you here for at least another two or three days until they make sure you don't have any severe head trauma...from the wreck, at least," she said with a wry grin thinking that the woman was seriously mess up in the head long before the accident. "During that time, Leah is going to stay at my house as we discussed this morning and while you're here, I want you to seriously think about the situation that you're in right now. You have two choices. You can either sign full custody of Leah over to Lee and me, or I can report this and you'll spend all of your daughter's best years only seeing her through a glass partition. Then Lee would gain custody of her by default. You have until Lee's party is over on Saturday to make your decision. Either way, you lose," Amanda said firmly.

"You know that you could lose your job for not reporting a crime, maybe even do a little jail time yourself," Candice said menacingly.

"I supposed I could," Amanda conceded, but didn't back down, "But in order for that to happen, you'd have to report me and you can't do that without turning yourself in for all the sickening things you did to Lee."

"God, I thought you of all people would understand," Candice said. "You're as in love with him as I am."

"No, Candice, I'm not," Amanda countered causing Candice to look at her in confusion. At her look, Amanda explained, "Oh, I'm in love with him, but you're not."

"I am too," Candice argued.

"No," Amanda said. "You can't possibly love him. No one who loved him could possibly have done the things you did to him. What you have for him isn't love because real love isn't selfish. What you have is a sick obsession with him, one that's going to cost you the daughter that you worked so hard to conceive by means of deception and domination."

There was a long moment of silence between the two women until Candice, looking utterly defeated asked in a small, childlike voice, "Are you going to tell Lee about this?"

Amanda bit down on her lower lip thoughtfully and answered, "For right now, no."

"Ha!"Candice said triumphantly perking up a bit. "So, you're just going to keep one more secret from him? You're standing there judging me for my deception, but you're just as bad. And here, Lee was just spouting off yesterday about how the two of you don't keep secrets from each other, yet you're going to keep this from him."

"I said for right now. I will tell him eventually, but there are two reasons that I don't plan to tell him right away. One is that I think it would really hurt him to know that someone he trusted would violate him like that and his self-confidence when it comes to relationships is already shaky. The bigger reason, though, if for Leah. That poor child hasn't had even a shred of anything remotely resembling a normal live and she deserves the chance to have that. I wouldn't want the knowledge of how she was conceived warping his image of her and preventing him from being a real father to her. I would do the same for my own children. While I was devastated that their father basically abandoned me and them, I never let on to my boys any of what I was feeling because I didn't want it to distort their impression of their father."

"That's what doesn't make any sense to me," Candice said looking confused. "You're a mother too. Wouldn't you do anything in the world for your children?"

"Of course, I would," Amanda answered.

"Then why can't you understand the reasons that Leah's never had a normal life? My life was in danger. You read the report of my debriefing and you know that her life was threatened to keep me in line. What would you do if that were your precious boys? Wouldn't you take whatever drastic measures were necessary to keep them safe?"

"Yes, in fact, I did. The difference is that when I was threatened and my home was threatened, as much as it broke my heart to be away from them, I ran, not _with _them, but away from them to keep from leading the KGB agents that were after Lee and me right to them. You can't tell me that there wasn't some other way you could have protected her. Surely, you had a friend, a family member that you could have left her with. You could have contacted anyone at the agency for help or you could have even given her up for adoption at birth to keep her safe and allow her a normal life."

"No, I couldn't have done any of those things, not when she was the only piece of Lee that I had left," Candice said, tears forming in her eyes. "You have your own children and another one on the way, why do you have to take mine from me too?"

"God, you're so damn selfish! Did it never occur to you that by dragging her all over the world and filling her tiny head full of stories of "mean mean" out to get her could have done irreparable damage to her psyche? No, of course, you didn't because, once again, all you thought about was yourself. It breaks my heart to think your completely self-involved behavior has put that little girl through hell. This isn't about me trying to take your child from you. This is about doing what's best for that little girl, something that you don't seem to give a damn about!"

"You don't understand, I-" Candice began but was soon cut off by Amanda's harsh, raspy voice.

"You're right, I don't understand," Amanda said. "I don't understand how a woman can use a child as a weapon, something that you've been doing since the day she was conceived. I've got your number now. You never wanted to be a mother. If you did, you could never have treated your own daughter that way. She was just a means to an end to you." Amanda paused again then said, "You've heard my terms and I stand by those terms."

"So, you're just going to take my child from me? What kind of mother are you that you'd take a child from the only parent she's ever known?"

"I'm the kind of mother who can't stand to see a child in pain, the kind who wants to see that beautiful little girl's suffering end, once and for all. Now, if you agree to the custody arrangement, you won't be losing her forever. I assure you, that Lee and I will grant you a generous visitation schedule as long as you stop trying to insinuate yourself into our marriage and accept that you're never going to have Lee again. Your only other choice is prison. Take your pick. You have three days to decide."

"This is blackmail," Candice said appalled that the woman Lee thought was so sweet, so salt-of-the-earth could stoop so low. She had to admit to herself, that she'd gained a new respect for Amanda's fierceness in battle, even if this battle had been launched at her. Now, she just had to figure out how to launch a retaliatory strike of her own. She had three days to figure out just how.

"Blackmail, maybe," Amanda said, "But I prefer to think of it as a tough negotiation."

"You're such a bitch!" Candice spat venomously. "How could Lee have ever fallen in love with you?"

Amanda chuckled and said, "You know, I think that's one of the things that he loves about me the most, the fact that I don't put up with anybody's crap, especially someone who threatens my family. Make no mistake about it, Lee is my family and I will do anything in my power to do what's best for him, to protect him. That's what a wife does, what a partner does. If you think that makes me a bitch, I couldn't care less. Knowing what I know about you, your opinion means less than nothing to me. I'll expect your answer by Saturday." Amanda turned, reached for her purse, slung it over her shoulder, and then turned once more to Candice as another thought struck her. "Oh, and by the way, if you've got any thoughts of trying to get your hands on this file to destroy the evidence, you should know that I made multiple copies of my research and hid pieces of them in several different files in the vault so that only I would know where they were." She then smiled sweetly at her, nodded toward Candice's bandaged head and added, "I hope you feel better soon," the turned again and swept out of the room triumphantly. _Take that, _she thought thoroughly enjoying having seen the depraved woman defeated by her own deception.

Candice sat in her hospital bed in utter shock at what had just taken place, disturbed by Amanda accusing her of being a rapist and further disturbed that the fears she'd had of Amanda trying to steal her daughter from her were coming true. She sighed as more tears slid down her cheeks. She never would have believed from all of Francine's and Lee's glowing words about how wonderful Amanda was, that she would have ever been so vindictive as to force her to give up her only child. While she hated it, she had to give her credit. She had her right where she wanted her and she saw no way out of the horrible mess that she was in. _What the hell am I going to do?_


	28. Chapter 28

Saturday morning, Dotty and Amanda were in the kitchen busily preparing for Lee's party. Lee, who had been banished from the kitchen a number of times already that morning, was in the living room halfheartedly reading the newspaper. After he had skimmed through all the sections, he tossed it haphazardly onto the coffee table, stood and walked into the kitchen. He glanced briefly at his daughter who was ahppily coloring at the breakfast table. 

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" he offered for the tenth time.

"No." Dotty said firmly. "This is your birthday party and you're not going to lift a finger."

"If you insist, but I need something to do. I'm going crazy just sitting out there waiting." The nervous energy from anticipating the conversation that was going to go on after the party was really starting to get to him.

"I told you that you should have waited at the apartment for awhile or go to the office to work on those files that are piled on your desk. Phillip and Jamie won't be home for another hour and I knew you'd be bored silly." Amanda reminded him.

"Hmm, there must be something I can do to help," he started as he looked mischievously around the room, "I know," He snapped his fingers, "I can at least distract one of the cooks a little," He said playfully as he slipped his arms around Amanda and nipped at her neck.

Amanda laughed as she enjoyed the contact, but still tried to shoo him away with the vegetable peeler she held. "No, no, no. Now, get out of my kitchen."

Lee loved a challenge so he tightened his grip around Amanda's waist and started to nibble her neck again, making sure in his endeavor that he got right to the most sensitive spot that he knew made her hot for him. "Maybe once this party's done and everybody's gone home, we can work some more on making our baby," he murmured against her skin.

She enjoyed his affections for a brief moment while she tried to turn her attention to the veggie tray she was preparing, but when she became too distracted to concentrate, she wriggled out of his grasp "Scoot!" She said as she shoved him toward the living room with a swat to his rear."You won't be bringing any ants into _my_ kitchen!"

Lee pretended to pout. "Okay, Okay, I can tell when I'm not wanted." He said as he stepped just barely out of the kitchen leaning against the bookshelf in the den as he watched the two women at work.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that you're not wanted," Amanda quipped, very happy that she and Lee could now feel free to be the happy married couple that they were in the presence of her mother, "Just not right now. If you want things to be ready by the time the guests get here, you need to stay out of our way."

Dotty watched this scene with some amusement, smiling at the happiness that her daughter had found with a man who clearly adored her. "Speaking of guests, why is it you said you invited Mr. Melrose again?" She was burning with curiosity. She didn't like the man after the way he'd treated her daughter like a criminal, yet Amanda seemed to have no problem with him.

Amanda sighed in frustration. This week had taken its toll on her. Between learning that Lee had a child, all her thwarted attempts to tell him about her pregnancy and the fact that they were making no headway on finding out who had pulled Candice from the van before it had exploded. Then there was Candice herself. She couldn't help but wonder what the day would bring. Today was the deadline she'd given her for deciding what she was going to do. She'd visited her twice more in the hospital to remind her of the ultimatum she'd given her and to let her know in no uncertain terms, that she was not going to back down. She'd even offered to get Joe involved to draw up custody papers. Amanda glanced briefly at her husband and cringed a little. She felt a little guilty for keeping this huge secret from him, but after seeing the way that he'd bonded with Leah over the past three days without the revolting truth of how she'd been conceived hanging over his head, she knew she'd made the right decision to keep him out of it. She tried to shake off those nagging thoughts and turned to her mother, "Mother, I told you. I'll explain it all later. He's a friend of Lee's. That's all you need to know right now."

"I don't understand that either. One day, he's hunting you and Lee down as if you're public enemy number one and then he's suddenly Lee's best friend. I just don't get it."

"It will all be clear later on today, okay? Lee and I have a lot to talk about with you and the boys after the party. Can you be please just try to be patient until then?"

"Patient? Me? Amanda you know I am the model of patience. I mean, who was it who had to sit and listen to all your Aunt Edna's long-winded stories about her arthritis and your uncle Jim. Did I interrupt her one time in all of her ramblings and ask her to just get to the point of the story? No, not once. Patience is my middle name. And do I ever press you about where you are on these supposed all-night shoots for the IFF?" She said with a pointed glance at Lee who merely shrugged. "No. I mean, if I weren't patience I'd have started hounding you long ago about all these mysterious trips and how you really ended up in California and got shot to make you come clean with me about your secret marriage. Amanda, saints could take lessons from me in patience."

Listening to Dotty from his perch, Lee decided to come to Amanda's rescue. He sauntered back into the kitchen with his long-practiced cocky swagger and swiped some of the icing off the cake that Dotty was working on. As she grabbed his arm and gave him a scolding stare, he flashed her one of his most charming smiles. Laughing and turning him loose, she made the comment "Well, I can certainly see why Amanda can never stay angry with you for long. You are just too cute."

Lee licked the icing off his finger, placed his hands on Dotty's shoulders, beamed at her and kissed his mother-in-law on the cheek. "Come on, Saint Dotty, Billy's a great guy. Can you give him another chance?"

Dotty looked at him thoughtfully. "Lee, you weren't here. He was absolutely the rudest man I've ever..."

Lee silenced her by placing his finger over her lips "Please Dotty...for me," He said with an affectionate smile.

Dotty couldn't help but smile back at him knowing how happy he made her daughter; she sighed and said, "Lee, Darling...anything for you. I'll even try to be nice to that awful man."

Amanda laughed at the way Lee could work her mother by shamelessly flirting with her. She hoped this afternoon would not do irreparable damage to their blossoming relationship. Knowing her mother as she did though, she knew that her mother's opinion of Billy would probably be far worse by the time she found out the whole truth. "I'd appreciate it if you were. With everything that's been happening this week, I just would like to have one day to relax."

"Alright, alright, I'll behave," She promised. "I mean, after all, I've gone to a lot of effort to set this up and I do want you to enjoy your birthday party."

"Good. That's the spirit." Lee winked at her and kissed Dotty's hand before making his way to the breakfast table. "Watcha' doin' there, Princess," he said to his little girl.

"Coloring Superman for Jamie when he gets here," Leah said exuberantly. "He likes Superman, right? He's got the Superman sheets on his bed."

"Yes, he does," Lee said with a smile as he glanced at the fridge and saw the coloring book page now tacked to it with a magnet of Wonder Woman, with the childish scrawl, _To Amanda, love Leah_. He recalled with some fondness how Leah had worked so hard on it while sitting at Amanda's desk in the office a few days ago and how he'd helped her with the spelling of his wife's name. He looked back at his daughter and thought of how deeply moved Amanda had been when Leah had proudly presented her with it when she'd returned from her mysterious errand and the happy tears it had brought to her eyes.

"Speaking of which," Dotty said to Amanda. "What exactly are you going to tell the boys when they get here about the presence of a four-year-old at grown man's birthday party? I know that you wanted to wait until after all the party guests have left to tell them everything, but you have to know that they're going to have questions about who she is."

"We've got it covered, Dotty," Lee said with a smile and a nod to his wife.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Francine nervously poked her head out the door of her bedroom to glance at her friend. "You okay in there?"she called.

"For the fourth time, yes, I'm fine and you don't have to keep checking on me as if I'm a child," Candice snapped as she took a drink of the cocktail in her hand.

"Isn't it a little early in the day for that?"Francine asked in concern nodding to the glass in her friend's hand.

"I'm in pain, Francine," Candice said in irritation. "This is the only thing that helps ease it."

"What about the pain meds the doctor prescribed for you? Don't those help?"

"Sure, they do and they make me sleep my life away. How am I supposed to be a mother to m child if I can't stay awake?"

"Maybe you should let Leah stay with Lee and Amanda for a while longer, just until you're feeling better," Francine suggested.

"Oh, I suppose you're on her side now," Candice said as she slammed her glass down on the end table. "That vindictive bitch would like nothing better that to take my daughter from me forever."

"I don't think that's true, Candice," Francine said startled by Candice calling Amanda a vindictive bitch Amanda could be called many things, but that certainly wasn't one of them. While she and Amanda had clashed from time to time, she didn't believe that she had a vindictive bone in her body. "I think she'd just trying to get to know her and be a good stepmother to her just like Lee's tried to be a good stepfather to her boys."

"Oh, right, I keep forgetting. They're one big happy family. Oh, wait, no they're not. Her kids don't even know that he's their stepfather."

"Look, that has nothing to do with you, That's between Lee, Amanda, and her kids, okay? The only thing you need to worry about is getting yourself better so that you can take care of Leah."

"Well, if your new best friend has her way, I won't be taking care of Leah ever again," Candice said bitterly as she contemplated Amanda's threats to her of three days ago. She still couldn't believe that she'd been out-maneuvered by a housewife. _Housewife, my ass,_ she thought wondering just how Amanda had convinced Lee that she was just your ordinary run-of-the-mill housewife when she was clearly so much more.

"Okay, that's it," Francine said. "I've had it with both you and Amanda sniping to me about each other. Just what the hell is going on between you two?"

"Nothing," Candice said looking away from Francine as she suddenly became very interested in her drink again, picking up the glass and staring into the bottom of it.

"Nothing, my ass," Francine said. "Ever since the day that Lee took you back to the hospital, Amanda's been acting all secretive and making little snarky comments about you and you've been acting like she's public enemy number one. Now, you're acting as if she's some kind of kidnapper who's just going to swoop in and steal Leah from you."

"That's exactly what she's trying to do. She already stole Lee from me, but that...that woman...she's not satisfied with just taking away the man I love, now she wants my little girl too. And you...you're so blind that you can't see what a manipulative shrew she really is."

"Okay, look, let's clear this up right here and now. She didn't _steal _Lee from you. Lee was never yours to begin with and you know it. You've been hell-bent on believing that the second you told him about Leah, he'd just drop everything and profess his undying love for you, something that I told you five years ago would never happen. I don't know what's happened to you, Candice, but you're not the same person you used to be. I'm starting to wonder if you ever were the person I thought you were. I don't know if you're delusional, in denial or just plain crazy, but whatever it is, you have to get over this obsession with Lee. Get it out of your head that you're going to be one big happy family because that is never going to happen. I don't know how this has escaped your attention this week, but that man is head over heels in love with Amanda."

"No," Candice said. "He can't be. He couldn't love someone like her, not if he knew what I know about her." It was then that a thought struck her. She didn't have to give in to Amanda's blackmail. All she had to do was tell Lee about Amanda's extortion attempt and it would be all over for her, plus she had a sneaking suspicion that Amanda still hadn't told him about her pregnancy. For all Amanda's ranting about how deceptive she'd been, she was just as bad, worse even, because she was his wife and was deceiving him. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on the door.

"I got it," Jonathan said as he entered from the bedroom and made his way to the front door.

Francine sighed, "Now, that'll be Efraim. He'll be here with you while we're at Lee's party to keep you company in case you need anything since you're having trouble getting around."

"I don't need a babysitter," Candice growled.

"It's not about babysitting," Francine said. "I just wanted someone to look after you since you're still recovering from the wreck."

"That wouldn't' be necessary if you'd just let me go to the party with you."

"I'm sorry, Candice, but Amanda was very specific that you were not invited to this party and since it's her home, I have to respect her wishes."

"I'm the mother of his child," Candice said hotly. "I should be allowed to go to his birthday party."

"Candice, get over it. It's not gonna' happen," Francine said firmly as Jonathan and Efraim stepped into the room.

"There you go, siding with your new best friend again. What is it about Amanda King that makes everybody choose her over me?"

"Candice, stop it! Just stop! You're acting like a spoiled child and I'm sick of it! You've been moping and pouting since we brought you home from the hospital last night. The way you're acting right now, I'd be amazed if you grow up before your child does! We can discuss this later, but I have to go. They're expecting me."

"Fine! Go! Go be with your new best friend!" Candice shouted.

Francine sighed again and bit back a retort, turning to her fiancé' and saying, "Come on. Let's go."

As they made their exit, Efraim approached her warily and said, "Hello, Candice."

"Hi," she said as she laid her head on the back of the couch and stared up at the ceiling, her mind a whirl. How was she going to get out of this. Amanda made it very clear that she was expecting her answer by tonight and if she didn't make her decision, she was going to turn in all the damning evidence that she had against her.

"Are you doing okay?"Efraim asked in concern, as he didn't think she looked good. He'd gone to a lot of trouble to protect her over the years and keep her away from the Carrerra cartel. Now, look at her.

"Peachy," she said sarcastically as she looked at him. She downed the rest of her drink and then added, "I could use another drink though."

"Sure," he said as he took her glass and made his way to the bar. "What are you drinking?"

"Scotch on the rocks," she replied. As she watched Efraim working on her drink and fixing one for himself, a thought struck her. "Hey, Efraim, you're Amanda's training supervisor, right?"

"Yeah, why?" he said as he returned with the drinks and sat beside her on the couch.

"So, you've seen her test scores, you get copies of all the reports she files, so you have to have an idea of how her mind works, right?'

"To a point, I suppose," Efraim answered nervously. "Lee really knows her better than anyone though. I have to tell you, of all the freshmen, she's the most resourceful and has the highest test scores of any of them. She drives me up a wall from time to time though because some of the things she does are so unorthodox. It's a little difficult with her in class because all the other freshmen are fresh out of Station One where she had three years experience before she started classes, a lot of that in the field with Lee."

"Finally, someone who isn't singing Amanda's praises and thinking she's this perfect saint," Candice said triumphantly.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, she's a good agent. Her aversion to guns is a bit of a problem, but she thinks outside the box more than anyone I've ever met," Efraim said. "Why are you so curious about her anyway?"

"I know she's working on the Carrerra files and I just want this thing wrapped up so I can live my life in peace," she lied. "Listen, you have keys to her office, right?"

"Uh...yeah, but Billy ordered me to stay out of the Carrerra case," Efraim protested.

"Look, if Billy says anything, I'll take the blame. I need to know what she's found," Candice said. "Besides, I can't sit here and go crazy. After five years on the run, I'm used to action."

"Yeah, okay," Efraim conceded. He wanted to get a good look at Amanda's research himself to see how close she was to putting together the pieces between him and the Carrerras and with them out of the office, there would never be a better opportunity. "Come on," He said as he helped Candice to her feet and onto her crutches.


	29. Chapter 29

In the Q Bureau, Efraim was poking through files in the vault while Candice was looking through the ones that had been neatly piled on Amanda's desk, sipping on yet another glass of scotch from a bottle she'd found hidden in Lee's bottom desk drawer. She slammed down the folder she'd been looking through in frustration, knocking over a framed photograph. She picked it up to glance at it and saw that it was a picture of Lee with a boy with glasses in a baseball uniform, the word, _Bombers_ emblazoned on it and that Lee was wearing a matching shirt his arm across the boy's shoulder. One of Amanda's brats, she supposed as she opened the frame and pulled the photo from it and turned it over. She found that it was dated just two months ago and in Lee's familiar handwriting were the words, _Look, who's a Bombers' father now. _ She assumed that this must be some private joke between the two of them.

She sighed as she re-framed the photo. As she put it back in its place, her eyes fell on another file with a post-it stuck to it with the name, Efraim and a question mark. Making sure that Efraim was still occupied in the vault, she perused the folder. As she delved into it, she found that it was a compilation of all of the phony IDs that he had created during his two years working in fabrications. There was another post-it on the inside that looked like Amanda had written a reminder to herself to cross-reference them with the IDs that she'd had sent to her while she was on the run. She, however, didn't need to cross-reference, as she knew the fake names on all of them. She scanned the list quickly looking for anything familiar.

"Did you find anything?" Efraim asked as he exited the vault.

"As a matter of fact, I did," Candice, said with a smug grin. She hadn't found what she'd been looking for, but she'd found something equally good.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At the King house, the party was in full swing. People were talking and getting to know one another. Lee was hamming it up like a kid, enjoying the moment playing, a game of touch football with the kids along with Joe and Carrie. He and the boys had become so close lately but he knew everything would change once they told their secrets. After everyone had eaten, Amanda had tucked herself away at the corner of the house by the back door to hide where she could still see everything what was going one, yet keep to herself in an attempt to figure out how to break the news to all the people she loved. Not only was she keeping secrets from her mother and the boys but also from Lee. She absently stroked her abdomen and thought of her doctor's appointment of the day before and how she'd had to make an excuse to Lee about doing some legwork on their investigation. She glanced at Francine who sat at the picnic table with her fiancé', Billy, Jeannie and her mother and recalled how true to her word, she had insisted on going with her. They'd had a blazing argument about it because the doctor had warned her about the adverse effects that stress could have on her baby and Francine had tried to make good on her threat to go straight to Lee and tell him about her pregnancy. Amanda had talked her out of it and begged her to give her just one more day as she desperately hoped that having everything out in the open would alleviate a lot of the stress that she'd been under lately. Francine had reluctantly agreed, but told her in no uncertain terms that if she didn't tell him by the end of the day, she would do it herself. Francine caught Amanda looking at her and turning her head from her companions, mouthed, "Tell him," with a nod to where Lee was playing with the kids.

Amanda nodded and turned her attention to the game in progress. As she watched Lee and Phillip chasing Leah, who had the football and was running away from them as fast as her little legs could carry her; she smiled but had to wonder how things would be after today. What would Candice decide? The deadline on her ultimatum was fast approaching. How would her children react to her marriage and to the fact that this little girl was their stepsister? She and Lee had told them simply that she was a relative of Lee's, which was true. They just hadn't elaborated yet on how she was related to him. How would Lee react to the news that he was going to be a dad again? He'd seemed very gun-ho about them having a baby together to unite their family, but would he still feel the same way in knowing that the baby he said he wanted was going to arrive sooner than he planned on?

She glanced back toward the picnic table where her mother sat chatting with Billy and Jeannie as well as Jonathan and Francine, true to her promise to Lee; she was being nice and trying to get to know Billy. How would her mother take the revelation of why they'd kept their marriage under wraps? She couldn't help but chuckle a little at the snippets of conversation going on as her mother was giving wedding planning tips to Francine who'd opted out of the invitation to join in the game, which didn't really surprise her all that much. She chuckled softly to herself as she recalled the case they'd worked together when they were undercover as maids and how much Francine hated to get her hands dirty. Billy and Jeannie jumped in with tales from their own wedding while Dotty related stories of helping Amanda plan her wedding to Joe.

Hearing her mother talk about that long-ago day, her gaze then shifted to Joe, who was in the thick of the game and was embroiled in something of a wrestling match with Jamie who now had the ball, while his wife Carrie, was attempting to defend her younger son. She'd told him on the phone that they planned to tell the boys everything and he'd seemed supportive during that conversation, but would that change once he knew that she was pregnant and that she and Lee had talked about selling the house that had once been his home and shop for a bigger one for their rapidly growing family? Of course, Lee didn't yet know that their family would be growing sooner than expected, he was just anticipating that they would someday have a baby of their own. She watched in amusement as little Leah snuck in surprising Jamie by running between his legs causing him to drop the ball.

Dotty noticed that her daughter, who was usually in the thick of all the action at birthday celebrations, had withdrawn and seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, oblivious to the action all around her. The time had come to find out what exactly was going on. She approached her daughter."Are you ok, Dear?" She was concerned.

"Sure. I'm fine. I'm just glad Lee's enjoying his party."

Dotty glanced at the football game and said, "Yes, he certainly is enjoying it. You don't seem to be having a good time, though."

"I've just got a lot on my mind. Hey, since everyone's about done eating, why don't we bring the cake out?" She said, quickly changing the subject. She wasn't ready to talk about everything yet. She started to head for the kitchen, but her mother's voice stopped her.

"Lee still doesn't know yet, does he?"

"Know what?"Amanda asked innocently.

"About the baby," Dotty said in a hushed tone. When she saw that her daughter was about to protest, she continued with, "And don't even try to deny it. I can tell by the way he was talking in the kitchen this morning about having a baby that you haven't told him."

"Well, isn't this nice?" Candice snorted. She'd just hobbled in through the back gate, Efraim behind her.

"What are you doing here?" Amanda demanded. Dotty looked at Amanda worriedly.

"Well, I thought the _real _mother of Lee's daughter had a right to be at his birthday party," she said with an icy glare at Amanda before glancing to Lee who'd just grasped his daughter by the waist to wrest the football from her tiny grasp.. When he put Leah down, the little girl excitedly ran to her mother.

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" She cried as she flung herself at Candice nearly knocking her off-balance.

Lee walked over to them, picked Leah up and looked around to try to gauge everyone's reaction to the bombshell. Phillip and Jamie were dumbstruck and staring at Leah and Lee. He could tell they were both confused and a little hurt. Joe immediately came to their side. Billy made his way over to Amanda placing a comforting arm on her shoulders. Lee himself looked a little confused at that gesture. While he knew that Billy liked Amanda, he had seemed more nurturing than usual today. Was something wrong with Amanda that he was missing?

"What a nice party. Everyone's here, but the person who _should_ have been invited." Candice said.

Francine walked toward her, knowing from the slight slur in her speech that Candice had continued drinking after she left. Damn Efraim, he was supposed to be there to Candice-sit and make sure she was okay, not bring her here. "Efraim, what the hell are you doing? Why did you bring her here?"

"I...uh...I..." Efraim stammered not sure what to say as Candice had blackmailed him into it since she'd figured out that he was her mysterious benefactor. He hastily made a retreat back the way he'd come.

Francine sighed in frustration. She felt sorry for Candice after all that she'd been through but doing this here and now was in no one's best interest, especially Leah's. As Leah's godmother, it was Francine's job to look out for her and in this past week, Francine had grown very fond of the little girl whose life ambition was to grow up and be just like her Auntie Francine. She also remembered what the doctor had told Amanda yesterday when she'd gone to her doctor's appointment with her. When Lee found out that she had helped Amanda keep this from him she was going to be in enough trouble. She didn't even want to think of what Lee would do to her if he something happened to the baby. "Candice, I don't think this is a good idea... why don't you let me take you home?"

"Home," she said incredulously "HOME, did you say. I don't have a home...SHE..." Candice pointed an accusing finger at Amanda as she spewed out her venom, "...took my only chance at a home...she took everything away from me..." Francine took Candice's arm "Don't you even try it, Francine." Candice jerked violently away from Francine almost losing her balance in the process, "You knew all about this and you could have told me, but you decided to side with your new best friend." She gestured toward Amanda again. "You seem to forget everything that you and I went through together before she ever joined The Agency. I was your partner, remember?"

"The Agency?" Dotty asked surprised. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, precious, can-never-do-any-wrong Amanda, still hasn't come clean with all the secrets she's keeping?"

"Candice, don't do this," Amanda said in a warning tone, challenging the other woman with a fiery look in her eyes. "You're only going to hurt yourself and everyone else in the long run."

"And why not? What have you ever done for me, except take everything I ever loved from me? You've got the only man I've ever loved, you've turned my best friend against me. You even have my daughter's affection. What else is left for me? Did you tell everyone here how you plan to take my little Leah from me permanently?"

Lee put Leah down and walked over to Candice. "Candice, let's-" he began but was cut off by his vengeful ex-girlfriend.

"I don't suppose you've told your precious boys the truth either, have you, Lee? You didn't tell them that you went off and secretly married their mother without their knowledge and it's obvious that they don't know what you really do for a living. How you make your living by spying on people. Oh, and your perfect angel who rescued you from the likes of me has a secret for you too, Lee. Little miss squeaky clean has a little dirt she's been keeping from everyone." She then hobbled over to Amanda and stared her down. "Amanda, Dearie, I'm just betting that you haven't told your precious husband the good news yet."

It was Lee's turn to look puzzled. "Amanda...What's she talking about?" He looked at her. Amanda turned her head. She couldn't look him in the eye.

Candice laughed. "No, I can see you haven't. Well, Lee, this week is just full of surprises, isn't it? Not only do you learn that you have a daughter you never knew about, but also that you're going to be a father again. Isn't that right, Amanda?" Candice sneered.

"Why couldn't you just take my offer and leave us alone?" Amanda fired back. "I gave you an out. You could have made this a whole lot easier on all of us."

"An out? Is that what you're calling it? You threatened me and gave me an ultimatum, telling me my only OUT was giving up my daughter. I'll see you dead before I will ever let that happen."

"Okay, Candice I think that's quite enough," Billy said. He had heard more than enough. "You're going home with Francine and Jonathan now and drink some strong black coffee."

"I don't have to follow your orders. You're not my boss anymore," she fired at Billy turning his direction teetering precariously on her crutches.

"I suggest you do as I say unless you want to spend the rest of the time we're investigating your case in an agency holding cell," he said as he grabbed her arm.

"NO!" Candice shouted as she wrenched her arm from Billy's grasp and finally did lose her balance, toppling onto the grass.

Amanda couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Candice as she felt responsible for the predicament she was in now by her blackmail attempt. "Listen, there's coffee already made in the kitchen," she said. "Why don't you take her in there and try to get some of it in her to sober her up?"

Jonathan and Billy helped Candice to her feet, each keeping a firm grasp on her arms to corral her as they led her into the house, followed by Francine and Jeannie.

Lee glanced at his wife and wondered if what Candice said was true. Was he going to be a father again? He _had _to know. "Amanda, is that true? Is that why you've been getting sick and missing meetings and..." He broke off. He couldn't believe that Amanda would keep something like this from him.

Amanda nodded. "I'm pregnant. I wanted to tell you...I really did. It's just with Candice and Leah and trying to tell mother and the boys the truth about everything...and we've never really talked about having a baby until the past couple of days and...I...I did tell you the other night, but you fell asleep..."

"You guys are really spies? That is just so cool!" Phillip piped in.

"Oh, so it's alright with you that he's been lying to us since the day he came here?"Jamie argued.

"Get over it, Worm Brain... it has nothing to do with us. I think it's cool that Lee's our stepdad."

"Nothing to do with us? You don't lie to people that you love and what about his little girl?"

Joe jumped in before the dispute between his sons could escalate further. "I suggest that we all go inside and sit down and let your mom and Lee explain before we jump to any conclusions," and with that he herded the boys toward the house with the help of his wife.

"We'll be there in just a minute. I need to speak to Amanda alone for a second." Lee hadn't taken his eyes off his wife since Candice dropped the bombshell. She, however, had yet to look at him. She'd just stared at the ground wringing her hands.

"Mother, do you mind looking after Leah for a minute?"Amanda asked still avoiding eye contact with Lee.

"Of course, darling," Dotty said as she scooped up a thoroughly confused four-year-old, then said, "Don't be too long I can't wait to hear you explanation for this, Amanda Jean Stetson," just before she carried Leah into the house.

Lee hesitantly closed the gap between him and his wife "Oh boy, are we in trouble, she even used your middle name," Lee said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"I'm glad you find this whole situation so humorous," Amanda said looking downward as she kicked wildly at a clump of grass in frustration.

"Hey," He said as he cupped her chin and tilted her face upwards forcing her to look at him for the first time since all the secrets were laid on the line "It's going to be okay. We'll get through this together."

"You mean you aren't mad at me?" she asked in surprise.

"I didn't say that. I can't believe you felt you could tell Candice and not me."

"Well, that was just another one of those things that came out in the heat of the moment when we had our fight the other day. She was just so...so...smug and so sure that she was going to get you to leave me just because she has your child."

Lee nodded in understanding and said, "So, you thought you'd retaliate by letting her know that you were carrying my child?"

"Yeah," Amanda said.

"I can't believe that you took all this extra stress on yourself but right now, we have a family in there that needs answers. Am I angry? Yes, and hurt...but I know that deep down you were just doing that mother thing that you do. You were trying to protect me and find just the right time to tell me. So...will I get over it? Yes, because in spite of the hurt, the news does make me happy."

"You are?"She said with a smile.

He smiled back and said, "Yes, Amanda, why would you think that I wouldn't be when I've been telling you for days that I wish you were the mother of my child? Anything else we need to talk about can wait until after we pull ourselves out of the mess with Dotty and the boys."

"No," Amanda said,. She thought for a moment about telling him what had really sparked Candice's reckless behavior, but thought better of it. That was a long conversation and there were more pressing needs right now as the boys were in the house, awaiting an explanation.

"Come on, Amanda, something made Candice pick today to have her tantrum. She said something about you threatening her," he probed.

Amanda nodded and said, "That's true too. I found out something very disturbing about her that I need to talk to you about, too. It's important that you know about it, but it's nothing that can't wait. It's going to take a long time to explain it to and the family is waiting for us."

"Amanda, what could be so disturbing that you felt you couldn't tell me about it?"Lee questioned, not willing to let it go.

"Please, Lee, just trust me. I promise that I will tell you everything when we get done talking to the boys."

"I'm gonna' hold you to that," Lee said.

She kissed him softly and said, "I love you."

"I love you, too," he replied as he kissed her back.

"Come on, Sweetheart, let's go face the firing squad," Amanda said.

Lee chuckled and said dryly," I'm thinking that a firing squad might be easier on us that what we're about to face as he took her hand and they headed toward the house together.


	30. Chapter 30

Candice struggled against Jonathan and Billy as they entered Amanda's kitchen."Let go of me!" She shouted. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" 

"I'm trying to protect you from yourself." Billy said as he shut the door and nudged her toward the table in the corner.

Candice stumbled before plopping down on the chair knocking her broken leg into a table leg. "Ow," she cried.

"I'll get some coffee." Francine said as she headed toward the coffee pot as Dotty entered from the back yard with Leah, who glanced at her mother worriedly.

"Grandma Dotty, what's wrong with Mommy? She's acting scary." Leah asked.

"Grandma Dotty, is it," Candice snarled from her seat. "God, she's really done a number on my little girl's head, hasn't she."

Dotty ignored her and hurried up the stairs, telling Leah as she went, "Don't you worry about your mommy, my darling girl. We're going to make sure she gets better."

Francine who was aggravated with the whole situation barked at Candice, "You know, I'm sick of this. You brought this whole situation on yourself, even your injury that's kept you away from your daughter for the past three days!" She set a steaming cup of black coffee in front of her friend. "Here, drink this," she demanded.

"How do you figure? If that piss-poor excuse for an agent knew how to properly evade a tail, we'd have never gotten into that wreck."

"There would never have been a tail in the first place if you hadn't been so hell-bent on getting over here and taking Leah out of Amanda's care where she was safe. That tail followed you and Lee from the agency because of your insane jealousy." Francine took a deep breath and continued, "Well, I certainly hope you're happy now that you've made a complete ass of yourself in front of your daughter and the man you claim to love so much. Bet you sure impressed him today. I'm sure he'll be coming in here any minute declaring his undying devotion to the lush that broke up his birthday party and humiliated him in front of his family."

"You've got a lot of room to talk, you backstabbing bitch!"

Francine was stunned at Candice's outburst."Excuse me? How am I a back stabber? I think you take the cake in that department."

"Think real hard, Francine."

Francine looked at her blankly, not sure what she was talking about."What did I ever do to you? I was the best friend you ever had and I've tried hard to be your friend again since you came back."

"Oh sure. You were such a good friend that you couldn't wait to jump in bed with my boyfriend as soon I was out of the picture," Candice yelled with a gesture at Lee who'd just walked in the back door with his wife. Lee made a move to say something, but Amanda silenced him with a hand on his arm and nodded toward the dining room where she'd spied her children to remind him where their priority should be.

"Look, what happened between me and Lee was a mistake. We both know that, but neither one of us can go back and change it. Besides, we're both adults and whatever we may have done has no bearing on you or Leah or anyone else for that matter. Amanda is his wife and she's accepted it, where you're nothing to him, so you really need to get over it."

"I'm nothing to him? I'm the mother of his child. I think that should mean something to him."

"You know something? I'm beginning to think that Amanda was right and you got pregnant on purpose to try to snare him because you knew your relationship with him was falling apart. Now you're using that innocent child as a weapon."

"No, I'm not. I wouldn't do that to my own daughter."

"Then, do you mind telling me what in the hell you thought you were doing out there? Amanda didn't deserve that."

"Don't tell me you're feeling sorry for her? That bitch deserved everything she got. She acts so high and mighty when she's been keeping secrets all this time, all the while trying to blackmail me into giving up my child!"

"Listen, my relationship with Amanda has been rocky to put it mildly and where and when we actually became some sort of friends is beyond me, but you had no right to do what you did today. Do you know what you could have done? You could have caused Amanda to have a miscarriage. I went to her doctor's appointment with her yesterday and he said that if she didn't lessen the stress in her life that she could lose that baby she's carrying."

"Well, what about my baby? That little girl has been through hell and now she'll never know what it's like to have a real family."

"Cut the crap, Candice. I don't profess to know the first thing about children but even I know what you did today has nothing to do with Leah. That poor little girl had to witness a scene that turned every adult stomach in the room. She watched her drunk mother yelling at a father she's never really known. Just because her new family life may not be the perfect fantasy that you built up in your twisted head, that doesn't mean that she won't have one. Regardless of whether Lee is with you, he will do his best to be a good father to her. Amanda and I may not always get along, but if there's one thing I do know about her it's that she's a damn good mother. Leah could do a lot worse in the stepmother department. If you could get past your own selfishness, you'd see that."

"Oh, sure. Take her side. Your new friend instead of your old," Candice said bitterly.

"Candice, I _am_ your friend. What kind of friend would I be if I let you destroy yourself and that little girl over something that's never going to happen? I let you get closer to me than I've ever let anyone. I don't want to lose you, but I won't let you hurt Amanda anymore or for that matter hurt yourself or your daughter."

"What am I supposed to do, Francine? Everything I've lived for the last five years is gone. I've lost everything."

"You haven't lost everything. You have Leah, me, Jonathan, Billy, and if you stop being so antagonistic to Amanda, you'll have Lee's friendship. Nothing's gone except your fantasy, which never would have come true even if Amanda hadn't been in the picture. I know that if you think about it long enough you'll realize that too. If you stop acting like a damn fool, who knows, you might still come out of this with some of your dignity intact."

"Maybe..." Candice said thoughtfully as she sipped her coffee.

"You might even find that Amanda can be a good friend when she's not being annoyingly perfect."

Candice laughed. "Well, if you expect me to be her best friend you can forget it!"

"No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying give her a chance. She's just trying to do what's best for her family to keep them safe. I know you can relate to that with all you've done to keep Leah safe."

Candice nodded. "But how do you stop loving someone you've loved for 5 years?"

Francine knew that feeling all too well. She'd spent five years wondering why Jonathan had left her. She glanced for a moment at her fiancé' happy that that was all behind them now. She then looked back at her friend, took her hand and said softly. "Maybe you don't, but you can't let it control you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Much to Lee and Amanda's surprise, everyone was quiet when they walked into the dining room, which left them wondering if they should be relieved or even more worried. Joe had a stern look on his face, directed at Phillip and Jamie. Dotty entered the room from the other side, saying, "Good, you're here. Leah's asleep in your bed."

"Thanks for looking after her, Dotty," Lee said as he closed both sets of doors to the room to block out the noise coming from the kitchen so they could all focus on the situation at hand. He then took Amanda's hand, gave it a gentle reassuring squeeze cleared his throat and began. "I know you all must have a lot of questions about why we did what we did. I'd like to keep this calm if we could, so let's start with when Amanda and I really met."

"Yes," Dotty remarked as she took a seat and folded her arms across her chest. "The beginning is usually a very good place to start."

"It was actually before you all even knew IFF existed. It was back in October of 1983."

"1983? You've been involved all this time and never bothered to breath a word of this to any of us," Dotty said incredulously. "I mean, I knew that you were involved before I met you, but this is ridiculous."

"Well we weren't involved then...exactly." Lee responded.

"Lee couldn't stand having me around at first," Amanda chimed in.

"Wait a minute, that's not exactly the truth. I just didn't think that you were Agency material, but..."

"You mean I wasn't like Francine?"Amanda interrupted.

"...you proved me wrong very quickly," Lee continued. "Then I was just worried about you because I knew that you were a single mom and that this job could put your kids in danger." He then glanced at his stepsons.

"You were saying..." Joe said trying to get them back on track.

"Oh right, sorry, I was investigating a security leak in our department."

"You mean your department at spy headquarters?" Phillip inquired a little too enthusiastically for Amanda's liking.

"Well, yes at the agency, I had a package in my hands that was supposed to have the key to stopping the leak," He said and explained about running for his life until he ended up at the train station. He looked at Amanda. She picked up from there.

"That was the morning I was taking Dean to the station so his car wouldn't be out in the rain."

"Man, he was such a dweeb. I'm so glad you didn't marry him."

"Now Phillip, Dean was a very sweet man," Amanda's comment drew an _Oh really_ gaze from Lee "He just wasn't the man for me." She said as she smiled sweetly at her husband. "Anyway, all of a sudden Lee ran up to me totally out of breath. Well, I thought he was some lunatic who was going to take me to my car and do heaven knows what to me. You know you hear about those things all the time but you never really think it could ever happen to you and there I was in this train station in my nightgown and an overcoat..."

Lee was amused by his wife's rambling but they were getting off the subject again. "Amanda, could we please get back to the basics of the story? What you were wearing isn't really of any importance to this story. By the way, I never even noticed you were only wearing your nightgown. Do you make a habit of that very often?" He looked at her in amusement.

"Well...I..." Joe cleared his throat loudly to get their attention "Oh yeah...Where was I? ...He made me walk with him for a while. All the while rambling about being in trouble and about a man in a red hat and shoving this package at me. He just kept begging me to help him."

Lee jumped in at that. "I am not the one who rambles and I didn't exactly beg."

"You were pretty desperate." She said, looking at him. "Anyway," she continued. "He said it was a matter of life or death, so I got on the train and wouldn't you know it, there were a couple of dozen men in red hats on that train? So what could I do? I came home and brought the package with me."

"Wait a minute, that mysterious package that you were so worried about, the one that Phillip opened, that I ratted him out for," Jamie said.

"That's the one, Sweetheart," Amanda confirmed.

"But that package just had that stupid little music box in it and it didn't even work." Phillip said. "How could that have anything to do with spies?"

"That's what I thought at first," Lee admitted. "But it did. That card inside the music box had the names of three recipes on it, from Mrs. Welch's cooking show. Those recipes were code for places the KGB was planning on ambushing our missions and killing agents."

"Mrs. Welch?" Dotty asked in surprise. "You mean when she was arrested, you two were responsible?"

Lee and Amanda nodded, Lee continued, "My supervisor, Billy was so impressed with her that he offered her a job to help us out from time to time."

Amanda nodded in agreement. "I got so wrapped up in it, and ended up in so many dangerous situations I thought that I needed some kind of formal training, so they started letting me take classes at the agency. By the time your dad came back from Africa and was accused of murder, I'd had enough training that I was able to help Lee with his investigation, even though I wasn't a full-fledged agent yet."

"I guess I'd better come clean too," Joe interjected at the mention of the trouble he'd gotten into in Estoccia. "I've know about your mom's job from the time I got back to the states. Your mom and Lee cleared my name when I first got back to town."

"Your mom and I were becoming very close even before you dad came back. Billy had decided from the moment that he laid eyes on her that she was the perfect new partner for me. I felt like I knew you boys even before got a chance to spend any time with you. Pretzel the Clown knew how much you meant to me before I did. We worked side by side getting in and out of scrapes together and before we knew it, we'd fallen in love."

"Excuse me, but I knew it way before you did. Does the name Leslie ring any bells for you Mr. Stetson?" she teased.

He grinned at her. He remembered how jealous of Leslie she'd been and how he accidentally called her Amanda. "Of course we were both too chicken to admit it for a long time. It wasn't until that time last year when we were on the run from The Agency that we finally admitted our feelings for one another. It wasn't too long after that that I asked your mom to marry me. At first, we weren't planning to get married in secret. We wanted to have an actual wedding with family and friends, but when one of my friends got in some trouble and we saw his enemies using his seven-year-old son as bait for him, that really scared both of us. We knew that you'd be safer if you didn't know about things."

"But we still wanted to be together, so we decided to still get married, but just to do it quietly. Then four months ago, we went to a justice of the peace in Marion and made i official. We went to California for our honeymoon and that's when I was shot."

Jamie who'd been silently processing this information with a wary look on his face directed at Lee, said, "Okay, I understand all that. Why you had to keep your marriage a secret and all because of the dangerous work and all, but why didn't you ever tell us you had a kid of your own? You've been acting like you're some kind of second father to us and we never even knew that you had a little girl."

"Who cares?'Phillip asked his bother incredulously. "He's here for us and that's all that matters."

"Yeah, until he decides he's tired of Mom just like he got tired of his little girl's mom. It'll be just like dad all over again, only worse because he isn't our real dad and he won't have to see us anymore," Jamie countered.

"Hey, now Jamie you know your dad doesn't spend time with you because he has to." Lee said. "He's around for the same reason I am. I love you guys. To be quite honest Jamie, I never knew I had a little girl either. I only found out earlier this week.. Her mother and I were involved for a short time five years ago. She never got a chance to tell me about Leah because she disappeared. You see, she's an agent too. We all thought she was dead. As long as we're being so honest today, right now I feel much closer to you boys than I do to Leah, even though she's my own flesh and blood. As for me getting tired of your mom, that's never gonna' happen. You should both know it's not biology that makes a family; it's the things you share day-to-day. I never had a real family before you. My parents were killed when I was small, I had no brothers or sisters, and my uncle was my only family."

"Why didn't she tell you about Leah before now?"

"She was in hiding from the people who had caused her disappearance. She was afraid that they would try to hurt Leah or take her away from her and she didn't want that. I can't say I blame her. Your mom and I made the decision to keep our marriage hidden for the same reason. I know we haven't been honest with you, but I want to make it up to you. I still love you both very much. The fact that I have Leah and that your mom is having my baby doesn't change that. I've spent some time with Leah this week, but I still have a long way to go to really get to know her, just the way I had to get to know you and the way we'll all have to get to know the new baby when he or she arrives."

Amanda felt the need to jump in. "I'd like for you boys to try to get to know her too. She is your stepsister and she's never had any family except for her mother. I won't force you to if you don't want to, but you both know what it's like to grow up without your father around." Joe looked at her and started to open his mouth. She gave him a stern look that silenced him before he could say anything. "I want you to think about that before you decide one way or another about her. She's only four and the only life she's known is one on the run with no stability. It's up to us to make her feel like she's part of a family."

Jamie was silent for a moment while he digested all of this."I guess you're right. I did kinda jump the gun, without knowing all the facts," Jamie said. "I'm sorry, Lee."

"Don't be." Lee said. "You have every right to feel hurt and betrayed, even angry. I wouldn't think you were you if you didn't feel that way. I just don't want you to hate us for hiding this from you. We only did it because we didn't want to see you get hurt."

"Do you have any questions you'd like to ask of us?" Amanda asked her sons.

"Yeah," Phillip said. "Is Lee going to live with us?"

"Eventually, yes," Amanda answered.

"What about Leah?" Jamie asked. "Is she going to live with us too?"

Lee looked uncomfortable with that one. He took a deep breath and began. "That's something we don't know yet. Her mother and I still have many details to iron out. As you saw today, she's angry with your mother...and me too. She came back to town, expecting that she and I could just pick up our romance where we left off. When she saw that nothing she could ever do would tear me away from you guys, she didn't take it very well. Now that I know Leah is my daughter, I want to be a part of her life but I'll need your help. I don't have much experience with this family thing."

"Well, since she is our stepsister, I guess we really need to try to get to know her too." Jamie said putting his logical mind to work.

"Absolutely." Lee said, beaming. This was turning out better than he'd expected.

Amanda hugged her sons and breathed a sigh of relief. Jamie made peace with the situation much easier than Amanda had imagined. She knew Phillip would be the easy one. Lee could say jump and Phillip would ask how high. She cast a wary glance at her mother. While the boys were content with the explanation they had been given, Amanda started to brace herself for the oncoming barrage of questions and accusations that her mother would have for her. Other than her question about Mrs. Welch, Dotty was far too quiet and that was never a good sign. Maybe she was worried for nothing. After all, her mother adored Lee and was happy about their marriage.

Lee and Amanda stood in silence while everyone pondered the explanations they'd just given them. Lee draped his arm across his wife's shoulder pulling her to him, knowing that she'd need a little reassurance right now, as he'd had the same thought she had, that Dotty had been much too quiet throughout this whole thing. He broke the awkward silence by saying, "Does anyone have any other questions?" hoping to get Dotty to open up.

When no one replied, Joe piped up, "Listen, since this party's a bust, and it seems like the boys don't have any more questions for the moment, I should probably take the boys back to our house."

Amanda nodded and said, "I think that's a good idea."

Joe nodded to his wife, rose from his seat and exited with her and the boys through the door leading to the front hallway, just as Billy entered through the door from the kitchen.

Lee closed the dining room door, turned to his boss and said, "Something up, Billy?"

"Yeah, I wanted to let you know that Candice is now passed out on the couch and that Jeannie I and are going to take off and let you deal with your family stuff."

"Oh, no you don't," Dotty said finally speaking as she rose from her seat, "You owe me some answers too and you're not leaving until I get them."


	31. Chapter 31

"You owe me some answers too and you're not leaving until I get them." Dotty glared at Billy across the room.

Billy sighed, glanced at his pair of agents who were still standing to the side of the table holding each other tightly. "Of course, Mrs. West," Billy said unruffled by her piercing glare. He smiled and her then said, "What is it you want to know?"

Before Dotty could begin, Joe hurriedly re-entered the room, pushing the boys and his wife ahead of him. "Change of plans," he said worriedly.

Off his look, Amanda perked up, pulling herself from Lee's embrace and said, "What's going on?"

"I think we're about to be under attack," Joe said. "Your surveillance van down the block looks like it's been ambushed."

"Okay, Joe, you keep the kids down and out of sight," Lee said then turned to Amanda and added, "I'll be right back," Lee said as he hurried out the door and up the stairs, while Billy called for Francine.

Lee returned with his weapon and Amanda's preparing for battle, handing her the revolver while he tucked an extra clip in his back pocket, just as Francine entered the room.

"Francine, did you bring your weapon?"Billy asked her.

"In my purse," she answered.

"Get it," Lee said. "You may need it." No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the front door crashed open. Lee and Amanda took a stance on either side of the dining room door while Joe pushed Phillip and Jamie under the dining table and pulled his wife behind him as he joined them, Francine hastily exited through the door to the kitchen, Billy behind her for cover until she could reach her weapon. Noticing that Dotty stood frozen in fear, Lee nudged her toward the table urging her down.

In his moment of distraction, he heard a scuffle behind him, turning quickly to find Amanda embroiled in a battle with a thug twice her size who was trying to disarm her, pinning her wrists to the wall. Just as he was about to jump in, he watched her expertly stomp his insole, and then knee him in the groin, causing him to falter before she slammed the butt of her revolver into his face knocking him out. He winced slightly as seeing his wife's actions, but was still immensely proud of her.

"Way to go, Mom!" Phillip shouted as he stood and cheered.

"Phillip, get your ass down and stay down!" Lee shouted before abruptly turning toward the sounds of glass breaking and shots being fired in the den.

"Lee, go, I've got this,' Amanda shouted as she fired of a warning shot to the latest goon who was trying to enter through the front door while Lee made way into the kitchen, ducking behind the refrigerator for cover until he could see what was going on. As he peered around it, he found Billy kneeling behind the couch firing off a shot at three more goons, noticing that he was a little unsteady and had blood oozing from his right arm. Candice was sprawled to the left of the couch keeping her head down.

Lee crept around to the other side of the island, glanced briefly into the breakfast nook to see Jeannie and Jonathan cowered beneath the table there. He crept toward the other entrance to the den; saw the French doors in ruins where the bad guys had crashed through it, took careful aim and fired at the nearest thug, smiling in satisfaction as his target hit its mark. As he watched the guy go down, then heard another yelp of pain to his left where Francine had just decked a fourth man and saw that two more were creeping up behind her. Lee jumped into the fray to stop her from being jumped from behind, launching a solid left hook to one of them before whipping around to pistol-whip the other.

"You made a big mistake attacking a houseful of federal agents," Francine said menacingly at the guy she'd just knocked on his ass before he could get to Candice. She then hauled an unsteady Candice to her feet trying to pull her to the safety of the kitchen while Billy fired a bullet into the knee of another.

"Amanda!" Lee shouted as he heard gunshots from the front hall while he still grappled with the two goons he was fighting. Billy now, no longer pinned down by gunfire jumped in to help Lee.

"I'm okay," Amanda yelled back from the doorway of the dining room.

"Leah!"Candice screamed as another thug began sprinting up the stairs. She wrenched herself from Francine's grasp and headed toward the stairs, Amanda coming from the other direction.

"Candice, move!" Amanda shouted. "You'll never get to her in time in your condition."

"She's MY daughter, you bitch!" Candice shouted shoving backward at Amanda as she still struggled to get up the stairs.

"I'll get her if you just get out of the way! Now is not the time for your stubborn pride to get in the way, not when her life is in danger!" When Candice still foolishly tried to climb the stairs, Amanda grasped her firmly by the waist and forcefully dragged her backward knocking her into the front hallway as she trotted up the stairs while Lee saw one of the downed men there reaching inside his jacket for something at his belt.

"Everybody get down!" Lee shouted, trying to get to Candice, but was knocked back into the den by the force of the grenade's explosion.

Joe, seeing what was going on had slammed the dining room door before diving under the table to shield the boys from the blast, the door flying apart behind him pelting him with debris.

Amanda felt the force of the explosion below her and stumbled slightly just as she reached the second set of stairs. "Leah!" she called.

"'Manda, help!" came the terrified response from the direction of her bedroom. She darted toward her voice and was halted by the sight of the four-year-old being gripped tightly by the guy she'd chased up the stairs, his hand around her tiny throat.

Amanda leveled her gun at his head and said, "Let her go. She has nothing to do with this."

"Don't even think about it, Lady, I'll snap her neck like a twig," he threatened as he gripped her tighter causing Leah to squeal in pain and aimed his own gun at Amanda, "Now, drop the piece, nice and slow."

Amanda complied slowly sinking toward the floor, holding her gun above her head to let him know she was obeying, hoping to lure him into a false sense of security. As she dropped to her knees and released her gun.

With a satisfied smirk, the goon said, "Now, I'll just get what I came for and be on my way."

As he backed up toward the vanity, Leah still held tightly in his grasp, Amanda saw her opportunity and seized it, reaching for a high-heeled shoe, tucked just under the edge of the bed, hurling it at his head. While he was able to dodge it, the movement knocked him slightly off-balance. She then snatched up her pistol and fired a shot squarely into the gut that had been left exposed by his attempt to thwart her attack. She rushed to grab Leah before she could fall with him and clasped her crying, panicked stepdaughter in her arms. "Oh, Sweetie, it's okay, you're safe now."

"The mean men came to get me," Leah wailed as she clung to Amanda, her tiny body shaking.

"Oh, Leah, I'm sorry. I promised you that you'd be safe here. I'm so, so sorry," Amanda said as she cried with her and held her tightly until her shaking subsided. She then cautiously carried her down the stairs to hear her husband softly calling her name.

"'Manda," Lee croaked weakly.

"Daddy!"Leah cried as she wriggled in Amanda's arms.

"Lee," Amanda said as she set Leah down and rushed to her husband's side.

"'Manda, you're hurt," Lee said as he took in the sight of her blood-stained shirt and gestured toward it and made an attempt to rise.

Amanda looked down and realized for the first time that she was covered in blood, but not her own. She then glanced at Leah and realized it had come from her as the little girl had sprayed by the blood of her assailant, which in turn had gotten on her when she held her. "It's not my blood," she reassured him as she pushed gently on his chest to keep him down. "You just lie still. You're the one who's hurt."

"'Manda...Candice...grenade...tried...stop," he sputtered pointing weakly i the direction of the front door before slipping into unconsciousness.

Amanda glanced across the landing toward the doorway to see Candice down, her body beaten and broken. She quickly snatched Leah up and rushed into the kitchen with her before the child could see her mother in that state as she tried to keep herself from losing her lunch. She found Billy and Francine there, both looking a little battered themselves, Francine with tears streaming down her face as her fiancé' tried to console her.

"Francine, I'm so sorry," she said as she set Leah down. "It's my fault. If I hadn't let the guy get past me, he'd never have gotten upstairs."

"Amanda, it's _not_ your fault," Billy said firmly. "You were pinned down in the dining room and you had no way of knowing the guy you'd already shot had a hidden grenade."

"I don't know, Sir, I...I should have searched him or something."

"There wasn't time," Joe said from behind her as he limped into the kitchen, his sons on either side of him for support, Dotty and Carrie behind him.

"Dad's right, Mom," Jamie said as he rubbed at a bruise on his arm. "Those two came in at once after the one you knocked out. You didn't have time to get both of them by yourself."

"Sir, you should sit down," Amanda said taking in Billy's torn shirt and the blood oozing from his right arm. "You too," she said nodding at Joe.

"I just caught a stray bullet while I was dragging Candice off the couch to get her out of the line of fire, since she couldn't defend herself," Billy replied.

"A lot of good it did,' Francine muttered still sniffling as she leaned into Jonathan's comforting embrace.

"Amanda's right," Jeannie chimed in gazing worriedly at her husband. "You should sit."

"Jeannie, in thirty years on the job, this is hardly the worst injury I've ever had," Billy argued.

"I know, my dear, but humor your wife, okay?" she said as she led him to the kitchen table.

"Something you should do too," Carrie said pointedly as Joe's bruised and beaten appearance. Joe nodded and sank onto one of the stools at the island.

Amanda turned to Dotty and said, "Can you keep an eye on Leah? I want to check on Lee. I think he passed out, but I wanted to..." She broke off unable to finish her sentence. While she thought some of the things Candice had done were despicable, she'd never wisher her dead.

"Of course, Darling," Dotty said as she took Leah's tiny hand in hers.

Amanda flashed her mother a grateful smile as she sank down on the floor by Lee's side, checking for a pulse and brushing his damp hair from his face as she placed a tender kiss to his forehead.

"There should be a clean-up crew here anytime," Jonathan said as he held Francine tighter grateful that she was allowing it, "And an ambulance."

"How'd you manage that in all this chaos?"Amanda asked curiously.

"I was able to get a call in to the agency just before those guys crashed through the French doors. It's just a good thing you have a phone in the kitchen," Jonathan said with a chuckle.

"Are you sure you still want to come and work for us?"Billy said with a laugh attempting to lighten the tension in the room.

Jonathan glanced at Francine who was clinging to him as if he were her lifeline and said, "Oh yeah,"

Satisfied that Lee was breathing evenly, Amanda rose and re-entered the kitchen sinking wearily onto one of the kitchen stools facing Billy. "So, what is it that he's going to be doing?" Amanda asked Billy, "Not an agent, right?"

"No, he'll be doing a lot of the same kind of stuff that you did when you first started, Amanda, mostly office stuff," Billy explained. "He's got computer skills that could rival yours. With the work he did for the CIA, we may give him the occasional milk run too."

"You'd just better damn well keep him safe," Francine said as she held onto him tightly, tears still trickling down her cheeks, "I already feel like I'm experiencing the worst kind of déjà vu. I couldn't take history repeating itself by losing him again too."

"Francine, you know me better than that. You know the agency always takes care of its own. That's why we had the team outside the house to start with," Billy said. He then glanced at Joe. "Speaking of which, how did you know about the surveillance team?"

Joe chuckled and said, "I may not be an agent, but I've had enough dealings with them to know what's what. Besides, seeing as how I once lived in this neighborhood, I know that utility companies don't usually work on Saturdays and from what Amanda told me on the phone, I already knew the house was being watched. I just put two and two together."

"Just trying to look out for our people," Billy said.

Dotty ignoring Joe, glared at Billy and said sharply, "Is this what you call looking out for your people?" She gestured wildly to the shambles the house had become.

"The damage could have been a whole lot worse if we didn't have the best team of agents here," Billy said beaming with pride, nodding to both Francine and Amanda. Francine managed a weak smile at him through her tears.

"I'd say there's been quite enough damage already," Dotty fired back not pacified by his attempt at diffusing the situation. "There's a dead woman in the front hall," she pointed her arm that direction. "My son-in-law unconscious in the den," she then swung her arm in Lee's direction. "My ex-son-in-law can barely walk straight," she glanced at Joe, "my grandchildren bruised and battered," she then gestured to a cut on Phillip's head, the bruise on Jamie's arm and the bruises on Leah's throat. "And look at you," she waved her hands toward his bloody arm, "Pouring blood while your wife is sitting there obviously worried about you and you act like it's no big deal. Then there's my daughter, "She glanced at Amanda and the bruises on her hands from her scuffle in the dining room."What the hell were you thinking about dragging a mother of two into this kind of existence?" Dotty very rarely swore, but she was so angry she was ready to pop.

"I didn't-"Billy began.

Dotty cut him off, "Don't even try to deny it! Lee told us all that you were the one who was responsible, offering her this crazy job!"

"Mother, stop," Amanda said adamantly. "I know you're upset, but now is not the time. Besides, even though Billy may be the one who offered me the job, it was my own choice to take it, just as it was my own choice to choose to help Lee that day in the train station by taking that package. It was my choice to use the clues from it to go after him once I figured out that his life was in danger."

"And you did it beautifully," Billy said with a smile. "You uncovered the secret to stopping our leaks and saved Lee's life single-handedly. We had a throng of trained agents working on that case for weeks and none of them could figure out what you did in just a couple of days." Billy then turned to Dotty and said, "That's why I offered her the job. Her instincts saved the life of the best agent I've got and saved countless others that the KGB would have targeted after him. I know that you're uncomfortable with all of this, but you should know that Lee and Amanda are the best team I have. I've been in this business for thirty years and I've never seen a team that works as well together as they do. They complement each other and your daughter has more investigative skills than any twenty-year veteran does. I've never seen any agent with a knack for spotting things that other people miss like she has." He paused for a moment as he saw a pensive look on Amanda's face. "What is it, Amanda?"

"The guy upstairs...it just occurred to me. He said he just wanted to get what he came for..." Amanda bolted from her seat and darted upstairs.

"Amanda!" Dotty called after her.

"Let her go," Billy said with a chuckle. "There's no stopping her when she's on a mission."

Dotty sighed and shook her head sitting on the stool Amanda had just vacated and pulled Leah into her lap, smoothing out the girl's disheveled hair.

Amanda returned with an armload of files and set them down on the countertop, "I can't believe it didn't hit me before. I was just so worried about getting Leah out of harm's way that it didn't connect at first."

"Amanda, what is all that?"Billy asked. "The Carrerra files are still at the office, aren't they?"

"Yes, but these are personal files that Lee had shoved in the back of his closet, some of them from the original investigation. He brought them over here yesterday so we could go through them." She began flipping through them.

Francine finally feeling calmer extracted herself from her fiancé's arms and looked over her shoulder. "That's Candice's' handwriting." realization struck her. "This is stuff from her old apartment." When Amanda looked at her quizzically, she explained, "When Candice died..." she swallowed hard and continued. "...When we thought she died...Lee and I cleaned out her place and he took all the agency stuff she had, but I...I don't think that he ever looked at any of it because he was too busy blaming himself for what happened to her. He just shoved it in a box and..." her voice trailed off as her grief threatened to overwhelm her again as it hit her that just like Lee five years ago, the last words she spoke to Candice were words of anger.

"Hmmm," Amanda said thoughtfully.

"What's on your mind, Amanda?" Billy said knowing that contemplative look on her face all too well.

Amanda glanced up and said, "Well, Sir, I'm thinking that if Lee had these all this time, maybe there's something in them that caused Candice to be targeted five years ago." She reflected back on the car chase of a few days ago and how the van had pulled up right beside them and the driver had taken a shot directly at Lee, not at Candice. "That also leads me to think that these recent attacks weren't on Candice at all. She just happened to be around. I think all this time; they've been after Lee to get to these files."

Billy looked at her, once again impressed by her ingenuity, but before the conversation could continue, they were interrupted by the sounds of sirens and a team of agents bursting through the front door, shouting to one another as they surveyed the damage as paramedics trooped in behind them.

One agent entered the kitchen from the dining room and said, "Everything okay in here?"

"Yes, Agent Forrester," Billy said. "We've got everything under control here, but Stetson's down in there." He gestured toward the den.

Agent Forrester nodded and said, "We saw Beaman down outside in the front yard, too." The agent paused and said, "He's dead, Sir."


	32. Chapter 32

A small crowd was gathered in the ER waiting room, Phillip and Jamie had already had their mild injuries tended to and were seated between Amanda and Carrie to while doctors were working on Lee, Joe, Billy and Leah. Jeannie sat to Amanda's right, Francine and Jonathan across from her, wrapped in one another's arms while Dotty paced nervously between them. Efraim and Candice's bodies had been delivered to the morgue after being pronounced dead on arrival.

"Mother, you should sit down," Amanda said as she pored over the files she'd brought with her.

"I don't want to sit down," Dotty snapped, "And I don't see how you can sit there so calmly, just working while your husband's in there going through god knows what." She gestured wildly toward the double doors behind the reception desk. "Aren't you concerned at all? And what about you? You've been through an ordeal yourself tonight. Have you even thought about how this might affect your pregnancy?"

"Yes, Mother, I'm concerned about Lee, but he's in the hands of the doctors now and there's nothing that I can do for him that they can't do better. Yes, I've thought about my pregnancy. That's why I had the doctors check me out first thing and they said that I'm fine and the baby's fine. As for this," Amanda said indicating the files in her lap. "It needs to be done and it helps keep my mind off of how worried I am about Lee and Leah."

"I just don't see how you can be so calm in all of this," Dotty argued.

"Look, one thing that I've learned well in my four years at the agency is that you have to stay calm in a crisis. If you don't you could get yourself or someone else killed."

"Candice is a perfect example of that," Francine said softly. "Her insane jealously and irrational behavior got her killed."

"Francine, I'm sor-"

Francine held up a hand to silence her and said, "Don't, Amanda. I don't blame you. She did it to herself."

Dotty then turned on Francine and said, "How can you be so cavalier about a woman's death, a woman who left behind a very small child?"

"I'm anything but cavalier," Francine fired back as tears threatened to overwhelm her again, "Candice was my best friend. I just got her back and now she's gone, this time for good. It hurts like hell to lose her again, but I saw what happened. She stubbornly refused Amanda's help and it cost her her life."

"I don't understand any of this," Dotty said with a deep sigh.

"Dotty, come on," Jeannie said as she rose from her seat, put a comforting arm around her shoulders, "Why don't we go get a cup of coffee?"

Dotty nodded and allowed herself to be led down the hall to the vending room where Jeannie plunked a handful of coins into the nearest coffee machine and waited for it to brew. She crossed her arms and said, "I don't know how you deal with this. Your husband said that he's been doing this for thirty years..."

Jeannie nodded and said, "He has. We've been married for twenty-five of those years and have to amazing beautiful daughters so show for it." She reach down and plucked the freshly-brewed cup of coffee from its slot and handed it to Dotty while she dropped more coins in the machine for herself.

"Doesn't that scare you?" Dotty asked as she took a tentative sip of the bitter brew. "Don't you worry for your husband's safety, for your children's?"

"Yes, it scares me," Jeannie admitted. "I absolutely worry for Billy's safety. I wonder every day if today is the day that I'm going to get that call telling me that he's not coming home, but I'd never ask him to quit. I knew when I agreed to marry him that this is what his life was and I accepted that. His desire to make the world a safer place for our children is part of what made me fall in love with him. As for my children, I don't worry about them any more than any other mother worries about her children. As Billy said earlier, the agency looks after their own. Any time over the years, that there was ever a threat that could have harmed our family, there have been round-the-clock guards on our home, just as there have been on the home you share with your daughter to protect your grandchildren. In extreme circumstances, there have even been times when we've been told to get away from the house and stay somewhere else." She once again reached toward the coffee machine and pulled out her own cup, taking a sip of it while Dotty thought about her words.

"Oh, God, the termites," Dotty said as a realization hit her. "I thought it was awfully sudden for Amanda to have suddenly discovered that we had a termite infestation with no prior evidence of it."

"Exactly," Jeannie said. "I know this is all a big shock to you and I don't know if this helps, but I've learned to take every day that I have with Billy as a gift and live life to the fullest with him for as long as I've got him in my life." She smiled then and added, "Of course, it helps that I'm married to a bona fide hero. It's even kind of sexy, in a way."

Dotty couldn't help but laugh as she sipped at her coffee. "But how do you keep from worrying?"

"I don't try to keep from worrying. I wouldn't be a good wife if I didn't worry. What I do to keep my mind off my worry is try to make the best home life that I can for him so that when he comes home from a stressful, maybe even dangerous day on the job, he doesn't have additional stress when he comes home. That's what has made our married work and kept us together for two and half decades. I'd like to think that in my small way, I've done my part to keep him alive over the years by providing that, giving him something worth staying alive for."

Dotty silently contemplated Jeannie's speech as she thoughtfully sipped at her coffee. She also thought back to Billy's words of praise regarding the kind of team that Lee and Amanda were. She'd felt so overwhelmed, so terrified ever since that awful woman had crashed Lee's birthday party, but now she wasn't so sure that she should be. When she finally spoke she said, "Do you suppose that's what has kept Amanda alive through the four years that she's been doing this, knowing that she had her children to come home to?"

"I'm certain of it," Jeannie said with a firm nod. "Billy's often told me that agents with families, loved ones last longer than the loner types. I think that's why he was so anxious to pair Lee and your daughter together. He saw long before either of them did that there was a potential for a lasting relationship between them and he and I both saw Lee traveling down a dangerous path after losing his partner in early 1983 right couple with the guilt he felt over what he thought happened to Candice in 1982. Meeting Amanda that day may have seemed like a fluke to an outside observer, but I believe that it was fate at work giving him what he needed, just when he needed it most. Amanda was his salvation."

"Hmm," Dotty said. "Here, i always believed that Lee was _her_ salvation. She cut herself off so much after her divorce. She had this great man in her life who loved her, loved the children and wanted nothing more than to marry her and care for all three of them, but she refused to open herself up to him and let him in. I always believed that a lot of that had to do with fear of being broken-hearted again. I think I can pinpoint to the day when I realized that Amanda had really fallen in love again. It was over a year ago when she was looking after Lee in the hospital, though I didn't know how he was at the time and I'd had a feeling before then that she'd met someone. But the way she talked about what a nice man he was, was when realized that she was really in love. Then of course, when I met him for the first time, I knew instantly the way he talked about her that he was equally in love."

"That love that they have for each other is what will keep them alive," Jeannie replied as she linked her arm with Dotty's and said, "Come on, we should get back."

They re-entered the waiting area to find Billy there, his injured arm now bandaged and Amanda gone. Jeanie rushed to her husband's side and hugged him tightly to her, grateful that he was okay while Dotty asked, "Where's Amanda?"

"The doctor came to get her," Jonathan answered while his fiancée was now looking through the files that Amanda had left behind. "Lee's awake and was asking for her.

Dotty nodded as she sat in the seat Amanda had vacated next to Phillip wrapping her arm around him. She glanced at the bandaged cut on his head and said, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Grandma," Phillip answered. "just a couple of stitches. I've gotten worse playing baseball."

Dotty chuckled and said, "Yes, you have," just as Joe limped into the room with the assistance of a cane, his right leg in a walking cast.

Carrie leapt to her feet and said, "Oh, Honey, are you okay?"

"Yeah," he answered glancing downward as he slipped his free arm around his wife. "It's a fractured ankle, but I'll be alright. They gave me something for the pain, so you're going to have to drive us home."

Carrie nodded, then turned to Dotty and said, "Do you mind if we take the boys home now?"

"What do you think, Fellas'," Dotty asked them.

"What about Lee? I wanna' know how he is first," Jamie protested. Now, that he knew what Lee and Amanda did for a living, he was worried. He'd seen him unconscious on the floor and feared for his stepfathers' health. He'd just found out today that he was his stepfather and he didn't want to lose him already.

Francine looked up from the files and said, "Listen, I know Lee and I know he's a fighter and I also know that the best medicine for him is having your mom by his side. You should go home with your dad. You know your mom will call you if anything comes up."

"She's right, you know, "Joe confirmed as he approached his sons. "Come on, guys. We all need to get some rest. It's been a rough day. We'll call from the house and check on Lee first thing in the morning, okay?"

Jamie nodded as both boys rose from their seats, said their good-byes to their grandmother and followed their father and stepmother out of the ER.

"You finding anything, Francine?" Billy said with a nod to the files in her lap.

"Yeah, enough that I don't think Candice really knew what she had or at least she hadn't put the pieces together enough to realize that she'd be a target because of it," she said with a hint of sadness in her voice as she handed one of the files to her boss. "That's a financial report on the project to shut down the illegal smuggling of cocaine into the country."

"Yeah, I've seen this before," Billy said as he took a seat next to Francine and looked at her wondering where she was going with this. "So?"

"So, this one," Francine said indicating another file in her hand "is the report from the Colombian government." She then handed it to him as well. "You notice the difference?"

"Not all the funds were going where they were supposed to," Billy said. "But where _were_ they going?"

"That's the thing," Francine said. "I don't think she'd quite figured that out yet, but I think I have."

"Oh?"Billy said.

"Yeah, look who the congressman in charge of the original project was," Francine said with a nod toward the first file she'd handed him.

"Congressman Mattson," Billy said with a low whistle as it hit him where she was going with this.

"Exactly, the same congressman that Efraim worked as an aide for as part of his internship when he was in college," Francine said. "I don't think Candice ever knew that part of Efraim's history.

"I'll be damned," Billy said. "I knew he was up to something this week."

"I'm thinking that it's no coincidence that we were attacked at Amanda's right after Efraim bolted from Amanda's back yard.

"That would explain why Efraim was so hot to get his hands on the Carrerra files, but this doesn't make any sense. When I spoke to what was left of the surveillance team outside Amanda's house, they said he was fighting on their side, trying to keep Carrerra's thugs from invading the house and that's what got him killed."

"I'm beginning to wonder if those were Carrerra's thugs, after all," Jonathan chimed in. "I mean, look at Mattson's voting history. He changes his mind more than most people change their socks."

"What are you thinking?"Francine asked.

"I'm thinking that maybe he was being blackmailed, maybe by Efraim. My thought is that he was skimming off the top and Efraim caught him and blackmailed him into sharing a piece of the pie," Jonathan explained. "I mean, he was a broke college student at the time with no family support, just trying to work his way through."

Francine beamed at her fiancé' with pride, then asked, "But then how did then Carrerra's get involved?"

"Simple," Jonathan said. "From what you've told me about what you learned about the Carrerra's, they had their hands in a little bit of everything, including a bit of loan-sharking. My guess is that Efraim go in over his head financially when he was in school, took out a loan from the Carrerra's, then couldn't pay it back..."

"...Leading Victor Carrerra to offer him an alternate way to pay him back," Francine finished for him.

Billy's smiled as he watched the two of them together, thinking now more than ever that he'd made the right decision in offering him a job.

Francine continued, "And once Efraim got his job with the agency right out of college, Carrerra turned the blackmail on him to sabotage our investigation."

"But then Efraim felt guilt or remorse when people started dying, Carrerra sensed he was getting cold feet and had one of his goons try to take him out," Jonathan added.

"But not before he saved Candice," Francine said. "He must have figured out that she was close to putting the pieces together and realized that she'd be a target. Then after his shooting when he was moved to fabrications, he'd have been in the perfect position to supply her with the fake IDs."

"Right and he's the one who sent her the notes, threatening Leah, although, I don't think he would have actually hurt her. I think he only did it to keep Candice from coming back before they could kill her for real."

"So, are you thinking that the guys who attacked tonight are trying to protect the congressman, not the Carrerras?"

"Well, we won't know that for sure until we question them, the ones that are still alive, anyway." Francine said. "But I have to agree with Jonathan. How else would they have known to follow Lee from the agency? Two-bit thugs like the ones the Carrerras have been known to hire wouldn't have a clue to the agency's location. A congressman like Mattson, however, would since he's part of the committee that oversees our budget." She knew that well enough from working as Billy's assistant where she'd had to tangle with oversight committees multiple times.

"I kind of feel bad for Efraim," Jonathan said. "All the poor guy wanted was a fair shot and made the mistake of trusting the wrong people. Then when he tried to right his wrongs, that just made it worse and ended up getting him killed..." she paused with a glance at Francine as he gently squeezed her hand, "...and Candice."

"The one I really feel for is Leah," Francine said as another wave of sadness it her. "That little girl has had such a screwed up life already and now she doesn't have the first clue that her mother's dead."

"Speaking of which," Dotty interjected. "Has anyone heard how she's doing?"

"Yeah," Francine said. "When the doctor came out to get Amanda, he said that they were going to keep her here for observation at least until the swelling in her throat decreases a little to make sure that she can breathe okay. They said they'd be moving her to her own room in the pediatric ward soon."

Dotty nodded and said, "I wonder how Lee's doing."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

While the conversation in the waiting room was going on, Amanda cautiously entered the curtained cubicle where her husband was being treated and was relieved to find him sitting up. "Hi, how you feeling," Amanda asked.

"Like I got knocked on my ass by a grenade," Lee said with a sarcastic smile.

"Funny," she said as she approached the bed.

"Have a seat," Lee said as he patted the bed beside him.

"I don't wanna' hurt you," Amanda said. She looked around, saw a chair in the corner, and said, "I'll...uh...just sit over there."

"Amanda, I'm fine..."Lee protested. "After all we've been through, I want you closer than that," when she still hesitated, he said, "Please?"

Amanda nodded an gingerly sat on the side of the bed. As she did so, Lee winced slightly. "See? I'm already hurting you," she said worriedly as she made a move to get up, but Lee grabbed her by the waist and held her in place.

"No, you're not hurting me, a grenade hurt me," he corrected. When Amanda nodded and he sensed that she wasn't going to try to bolt again, he released her waist, slid his hand to her stomach, smiled and said, "So, that dream I had the other night about you telling me you were pregnant wasn't a dream, was it?"

"No, it wasn't, but you were half-asleep by the time I had the courage to get the words out," Amanda said a look of apology in her eyes. "I was so afraid of how you'd react."

"Amanda, that's what I don't get. Why would you think that I wouldn't be happy about this baby?"

"I...uh...I saw how badly you reacted to finding out about Leah, how you tried to deny that she was yours and I..."

"Let me guess, you thought it was because I didn't want kids," Lee finished for her. When Amanda nodded, he said, "That wasn't it at all. I have thought about you and me having a baby together since the day we go married, longer even. I think I've been thinking about it since the day that I realized you were the only one I could ever see spending my life with. The idea that I had a kid with someone else other than you, threw me for a major loop. I didn't want anyone to be the mother of my children, except you and definitely not with someone like Candice."

"How did you start dating her in the first place? I mean, she was so..." Amanda halted, not wanting to trample on the dead woman's grave.

"I know she was," Lee said not needing Amanda to finish her sentence to know what she was thinking. "That's why a relationship with her was so appealing. I was in a weird place when I met her. It was right after Eva married Angelo. I'd just come back from Italy and she was there and flirted shamelessly. She was one of those driven women like Francine, more focused on her career than anything else, so I figured since she was obviously interested, she'd be the perfect choice to forget about Eva with. I never imagined that she'd be the type to get attached. I thought she'd be up for a good time, would be someone I could hang out with and..."

"I get it. Boy, were you ever wrong about her getting attached," Amanda said dryly.

"To say the least," Lee said. "At least this will be one birthday party that I'll never forget," he added with a laugh trying to lighten the mood. When he noticed that Amanda wasn't laughing with him, he took her hands in his and said, "Hey, what's wrong?"

"There's still something else that I have to tell you. I hate to tell you because I don't want it to change the way you feel about Leah, but I have to tell you anyway because I don't want there to be anymore secrets between us. Lord knows we keep enough secrets on the job but this...this is a really big secret and-"

Amanda's rambling was cut off by her husband's lips on hers. When she looked at him in surprise, he replied with a cheeky grin, "It's the only way I know for sure to shut you up when you get into full-ramble mode." She slapped at him playfully with a laugh, but her laughter didn't last long as she thought of the seriousness of what she had to tell him. Lee saw the distress in her eyes, cupped her face in his hands and said, "Hey, whatever it is, I can take it and we can deal with it together. You should know that no matter what, nothing would change how I feel about Leah. I know it's only been a few days, but I have to admit that while I was hesitant at first, I've already fallen completely in love with her."

"I'm glad you feel that way," Amanda said as she gripped his other hand tightly. "What I have to tell you is about how Leah was conceived." She then proceeded to detail the whole thing, the drugs, the mind-control, the memory loss, the files she had stashed away proving what Candice had done to him. When she finished, she looked at him in concern while she tried to gauge his reaction.


	33. Chapter 33

Lee's jaw clenched and he squeezed his wife's hand tighter as he contemplated everything she'd just told him. After a long moment, he let out a long breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding until he began to feel a burning in his lungs. He shook his head, looked deeply into her eyes and said, "I love you," as he pulled her to him for a long, lingering kiss tangling his fingers in her thick curly hair.

Amanda enjoyed her husband's attentions for a moment, but then pulled back and looked at him a little disconcerted. "I love you? That's your reaction to what I just told you, to what she did to you?"

"Yes, that's the most logical reaction I could come up with because what Candice did just makes me love you even more, makes me appreciate you even more because you would never do something like that. You'd never be that deceitful, that selfish, that heartless."

"But aren't you angry?"Amanda asked in surprise.

"Of course, I'm angry. What Candice did to me is just as heinous as that of a serial rapist, but what good is being angry going to do me? She's dead and it's not like she can be punished for it now."

"Oh, I'd say she's been punished," Amanda said. "Her obsession with you and with keeping me away from Leah, a child that she used the most disgusting means possible to create is what led to her death. I couldn't think of a more fitting punishment." Amanda thought about what she'd just said and how it sounded, then backpedaled, "That's a horrible thing to say and I know I shouldn't feel happy that she's dead. In a way, I feel partially responsible for her death. If I hadn't tried to force her into giving up Leah to us, maybe she wouldn't have put herself in a position to be in the path of that grenade."

"No, don't you dare take the blame for this," Lee said angrily. "You were just trying to do what you thought was right for my daughter in doing that. That's just one more thing that makes me love you more. You saw that Candice is clearly not fit to be a mother to her and you took steps to rectify that."

"But I did it for partially selfish reasons. I really just wanted her to leave us alone and stop trying to interfere in our marriage and since I tried to blackmail her, that makes me no better than her. It's just when I figured out what she did you, it...it just made me so sick to my stomach that I just wanted...I wanted her to hurt as much as she hurt you. God, I'm a terrible person."

"No, Amanda, you're not," Lee said gently. "You're very far from being a terrible person. There's your problem. You care so much, that it tears you up to see people hurting and you saw Leah hurting already by the awful environment that Candice was raising her in, then found out what she did to me and you wanted to bring her to some kind of justice, just like you do with any other criminal we chase down. Make no mistake about it, what she did to me was definitely a criminal act, but like you said, in a way, she's been punished for it."

"I was thinking that maybe when you get out of here, you should make an appointment with Dr. Pfaff to deal with this, maybe even recover some of those lost memories."

"No," Lee said adamantly.

"Look, I know you don't like psychiatrists, but it might help."

"No, I don't think so. What good would it do to recover those kinds of memories, to dwell on the past? What I want to focus on right now is making new memories with you and our family and starting a real future together." He then pulled her in again for another deep kiss and this time, she didn't pull back.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next few days were filled with a flurry of activity for Lee and Amanda, with the two of them having a sit-down with Leah once she was released from the hospital and explaining to her that her mommy was in heaven and wasn't coming back. Instead of crying as they expected her to, Leah quietly pondered the information for a moment, told them that her mommy had told her that that might happen someday. Then in typical four-year-old fashion peppered them with multiple questions, which Lee and Amanda answered as best they could and the conversation finally ended with one final question that threw both of them.

"'Manda, does that mean you're my mommy now?" Lee and Amanda looked at each other questioningly, neither quite sure how to answer. "Well?" she asked impatiently.

"I suppose I could be your mommy, if you want me to be," Amanda answered. "But it's okay if you still miss your real mommy."

"Of course, I miss her, Silly," Leah said as if that should be obvious. "But I still need a mommy and you're a good mommy."

Lee couldn't help but laugh and said, "Yes, she is. In fact, she's going to be a mommy again very soon."

"And you, Little Princess, are going to be a big sister," Amanda said with a smile.

"I am?" she said excitedly as she bounced up and down, "Oh boy!"

They spent the rest of the day buried in paperwork, Amanda to finally legally change her name to Stetson, while Lee, with Joe's help, did the same for Leah, and had papers drawn up for Amanda to legally adopt his daughter. They then had to file an insurance claim on the house to repair the damages, while Dotty arranged to stay with Captain Curt in the meantime, while Lee and Amanda planned to stay at Lee's apartment, Leah sleeping on the couch. They had bought her a set of Wonder Woman sheets to make up the couch with, had tucked her into her makeshift bed with Lois-Ann before turning in for the night themselves. Since she'd taken the new of her mother's death so well, they thought everything was going to be okay until she awoke an hour later screaming.

Lee and Amanda both rushed into the room to hear her crying, "'Manda' help me," the same way she had during the attack on the house.

Amanda, reaching her first, pulled the shaking girl into her arms holding her tightly and whispering, "I'm here, Sweetie. Shhh. it's okay, it was just a bad dream."

"The mean man," Leah whimpered.

Lee sat with them on the couch, stroked her wild blond hair, and said, "The mean man is gone. He can't hurt you ever again. Amanda took care of him."

When her sobbing subsided, they took her into the bedroom with them tucking her and Lois-Ann between them both of them holding her tightly until she felt safe enough to go to sleep again.

The next morning while Leah was in the bathtub and Amanda was fixing breakfast for them, they got into a slight argument as Lee has suggested taking her to Dr. Pfaff to help her deal with her nightmares after her ordeal.

"Oh, I see, it's okay for your daughter to go to a psychiatrist, but not you," she said incredulously.

"Amanda, I don't need a shrink. What I need is just to move on and I'll be able to do that a lot better once we get our family settled. While we're on the subject, it wouldn't hurt for you to make an appointment with him too."

"Me? Why me?"Amanda asked.

"Because, that confrontation with Leah's "mean man" is the first time in your time at the agency that you've ever had to shoot to kill. I know from experience how hard that can be to deal with."

"It's not hard at all," Amanda said. "I did what I had to do to save that little girl's life and I would do it all over again, just like I would for Phillip and Jamie."

"That's just denial, which will come back to bite you in the ass if you don't talk to someone about it."

"You go, I'll go," Amanda said challengingly.

"Amanda," Lee said in exasperation.

"Lee, the woman raped you," Amanda reminded him.

"I think that's a little harsh," Lee argued.

"Really? That's funny because just two days ago you compared her to a serial rapist.

"Okay, okay, I know what I said, but I was kind of in shock then. Now, that I've had time to think about it, it's not that big a deal. I mean, after all, I had to be involved somehow. I'm physically stronger, remember?"

"Now, who's in denial?"Amanda fired back. "It doesn't matter that you're physically stronger. That's why she had to resort to the use of drugs to get what she wanted. Those drugs left you incapable of thinking for yourself, fighting her advances and saying no to her. That makes it rape, whether you want to call it that or not. Addi Birol pumped me full of mind-altering drugs when he held me hostage. If he'd made an advance like that on me, I wouldn't have had any power to resist him in the state those drugs put me in. Would you still consider that rape? I mean, technically, you could say I might have given in willingly, since I wouldn't be fighting him..."

Lee looked at her in shock, "Did he...?"

"No," Amanda said. "But I think you get my point."

"Okay, yes, I get your point, I'll go," Lee conceded.

On a warm summer day, a few days later, Lee and Amanda stood at Arlington National Cemetery, Leah between them holding their hands, Francine and Jonathan to their right, Billy to their left, a few other mourners scattered here and there as they said good-bye to Efraim Beaman. They watched as his casket was lowered into the ground. "You know, he really was a good trainer," Amanda said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, though I'm not sure he belongs here," Lee said. "This place is supposed to be for heroes." He glanced off in the distance where he knew his parents were buried.

"We'll go see them before we leave," Amanda said sensing his thoughts. "As for Efraim, he may have done some shady things, but he did die a hero. He died trying to protect our family."

When the graveside service was over, they walked to the Stetsons' graves while watching Francine and Efraim wander toward Candice's. Lee muttered, "She's the one who really doesn't belong here."

"I don't know. Maybe, in a way, she died a hero too. We couldn't have closed that case and stopped Congressman Mattson and his men without her case files."

"That's stretching it a bit," Lee said.

"Maybe," Amanda said. "But I read all of her case reports through her entire career with the agency and she did do a lot of good work. None of that excuses what she did to you, but she helped a lot of people in her time and saved a lot of lives." She glanced briefly at Francine kneeling at her friend's grave, glad that she and Lee had decided not to tell Francine the truth about Candice. Amanda had destroyed her makeshift file. If someone else in the future would put the pieces together from the pieces of other files like she had, so be it, but since Candice was dead, she felt no need to bring her crime to light. It was better to let her rest in peace since she'd had no peace while she was alive.

"I guess," Lee said as they reached his parents' gravesite.

"These two, though, they were real heroes," Amanda said.

"You mean, because they died for their countries?"

"Yes, but also because they brought you into the world," Amanda said with a smile.

The day after laying Efraim to rest, Billy had offered Amanda his old job for the duration of her pregnancy to keep her out of the field, which she happily accepted while Jonathan helped Lee out in the Q Bureau as he became acclimated to his new job, Amanda still helping from time to time in between her classes.

**February 12, 1988**

Lee walked to the front door of the Colonial-style house that he and Amanda had moved into with their family the previous summer, setting the alarm before making his way up the stairs. He purposefully walked into each of his children's rooms, one by one, as had become his nightly ritual since moving their family into their new home.

Lee stopped first at Phillip's where he found the almost-fifteen-year-old asleep with a car magazine lying on his chest. He smiled as he pulled it from his stepson's grasp, tossing in on the nightstand, as he thought of all the subtle hints Phillip had been dropping about the fact that he'd be old enough to get his learner's permit in a few months. He thought that if his grades continued to stay on the positive track they'd been on since beginning his freshman year of high school last fall, he might reward him by letting him take the 'vette for a spin around the track, only with him beside him, of course. He gazed at him for another moment before turning off the table lamp and making his way into the next room.

He had to smile again at seeing Jamie also with his light still on, a photography book clutched in his hand and his glasses askew. He bent and gently removed Jamie's glasses from his face, taking the book from his hands and setting them both aside. He pulled the covers up over the sleeping twelve-year-old, brushed a soft kiss to his forehead, thinking of how much harder everything had been on him, having been so young when his father all but abandoned him and now having to deal with all the drastic changes that had occurred in the past few months. Jamie, being the more sensitive and observant of the two brothers, he'd unselfishly pushed aside his own feelings and had thoroughly embraced his role of big brother to Leah. His smile widened as he reached for the lamp and his eyes fell upon the framed coloring book page of Superman, which he now proudly displayed as a reminder of his new role as big brother. He snapped off the light and exited the room, traveling further down the hall.

He stopped in the doorway of Leah's room and just watched her sleeping by the gentle glow of her Wonder Woman nightlight when he was startled by a pair of arms sliding around his middle and Amanda's voice saying, "Making your nightly rounds?" She knew it had become his habit to check on each of their children and make sure that they were safely tucked in their beds before going to bed himself.

He jumped slightly and turned to face his wife. "You're getting way too good at that," he said at her ability to surprise him. He slipped his hands to her ample curves, still rounder than normal from having just given birth six weeks ago.

"You're just going to have to hone those observation skills a little better," Amanda teased.

"Speaking of observation skills," Lee said with a nod toward their sleeping five-year-old, "How do you think she's doing, really?"

"Honestly, I think she's going to be just fine," Amanda answered confidently with a warm smile, "She's stopped having nightmares and Dr. Pfaff says she doesn't seem to have a lot of conscious memories of most of the bad stuff that's happened to her."

"Yeah, he said something during her last session that kids don't retain a lot of memories of things that happened to them before the ages of three or four. I guess maybe that's good thing." He glanced again at his daughter sleeping so peacefully, sighed and said, "I just can't help worrying about her."

"I know," Amanda said, "You wouldn't be the great dad that you are if you didn't worry a little."

"You don't think sending her to Dr. Pfaff is too much do you?" He asked worriedly.

"No, I think it's been good for her. Besides, she adores him," Amanda said.

"That's probably because he always has a freezer full of ice cream," Lee said wit chuckle.

Amanda laughed and said, "Could be." She gazed at her for a moment longer and said, "It's been a long road."

"Yes, it has. You know, I was just thinking...Even though she's calling you "Mom" now, there's going to come a day when she'll want to know about her real mom, about where she comes from and I...I just don't know how we're going to answer those questions, knowing..." His voice trailed off as he became disgusted again at the thought of how she came to be. It didn't change a bit how much he loved her, but the thought of her mother's brutal violation of him had led to her creation still crossed his mind from time to time, though his own therapy sessions with Dr. Pfaff had been helping just as Amanda had predicted that they would.

Sensing his thoughts, Amanda replied, "I think when that time comes; we'll just be as honest with her as we can. I think we should just focus on the good things about Candice, how she fought so fiercely to protect her for the first four years of her life and while she may have done some unconscionable things in her time, she really was a very good agent. The fact that she was targeted for her case files proves that. I think we should leave out the details of her conception, though."

"Agreed," Lee said as he slipped an arm around her waist and they walked into the nursery together. "Speaking of conception, now that the doctor has released you to resume_ all_ of your normal activates, what do you say, when we're done checking on the kids, we go to bed ourselves and start working on the next one," he said with a mischievous grin as he lightly nuzzled her neck.

Amanda wriggled from his grasp, walked to the side-by-side cribs in which infant twins, Matt and Jennie slept. She checked on each of them in turn, making sure that they were covered up, and said, "You don't think five children is enough? We have our hands pretty full now as it is."

Lee crossed the room, grasped his wife firmly by the waist from behind again nipping at the tender skin of her neck, and then said, "Why not make in an even half-dozen."

"Well, Mother and Captain Curt did agree to stay with the children tomorrow night so we could get away for a night to celebrate our anniversary."

"And we are long overdue for some real celebrating," Lee said. "When I think of everything that we've been through together in our first year of marriage, I sometimes wonder how we not only survived it all, but came out on the other side stronger than ever."

"That's was real love is all about," Amanda said firmly as she turned in her husband's arms and kissed him. She thought briefly of poor, dead, Candice and how her dreams of having real love in her life had led to her death before shaking off that thought, turning her attention back to her husband, "Come on, let's go start working on that even half-dozen." She linked her hand with Lee's as they walked to their bedroom together happy in the knowledge that they finally had the life together that they'd both wanted for so long.


End file.
